


Something Worth Fighting For

by Incandescent_Midnight



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Family, Family Secrets, Friendship, Gen, Humor, Slight Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-13
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2017-11-18 14:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incandescent_Midnight/pseuds/Incandescent_Midnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People often say they live with some regret, and I am no exception to that. What I regret most in my life is taking the wrong paths; all of which led me on a boundless journey. The one thing I'll always cherish about that journey? It always gave me hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Prologue

 

            Looking back on my life now, I never would have thought that I’d be where I am today. Yes, there were parts that I knew were always possibilities, but they didn’t happen exactly as I thought they would, or planned them to.

            My name is Callidora Hopkins, and I’m a witch; the cast spells, broom-flying, potion-making kind…although I have been told that I have somewhat of a temper. I’m also a metamorphmagus, meaning I can change my appearance at will which is a rare trait among witches and wizards.

            I grew up around magic, and my parents, Nicolas and Violetta Hopkins, discovered that I had powers when I accidentally set this ugly sweater that my Aunt Miranda had bought me for Christmas on fire. I was six and wished I could burn it in the fireplace. My parents were proud, although they didn’t like explaining to Aunt Miranda about how I couldn’t wear the sweater since it “caught fire.”

            I’m a pureblood witch since both of my parents were wizards, but I don’t like to brag about my ancestry like some families do.

            When I turned eleven I received my letter to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry like my parents and most wizards my age.

            As I grew up and went through school, I had experiences, both good and bad, that I will never forget. I share my life with you not for sympathy, but in the hopes that you will understand the difficulties that come with growing up in my world, and that there’s always something worth fighting for.

 

* * *

 

 

Chapter 1

 

            “Happy birthday Callidora!” my parents yelled in unison. It was a very special birthday for me because mum and dad say that this year I’ll get my letter to Hogwarts. They were so sure I was going to get in because they told me I showed signs of being a witch when I was younger. I was still worried though; what if I didn’t get in? What if I turned out to be a squib?

            Dad handed me a really big present. It was so big, that he had to set it on the table in order for me to open it.

            “Go on and open it,” dad said all excited. I tore the paper open, and there on the table was a brand new broom. “We thought you’d need your very own broom. You can’t keep using your mother’s old one when you go off to school.”

            “Nicolas,” mum said. “You know first years aren’t allowed brooms.”

            “They are if they play Quidditch,” dad argued. “So how about it Dora? Want to test it out?”

            “Yes!” I squealed. Dad picked up my new broom off of the table and we both ran out into the backyard.

            “Be careful you two!” mum yelled after us.

            “We will!” dad and replied.

            When we got outside I was so excited to fly on it that I was jumping up and down and making dad laugh.

            “What kind is it?” I asked.

            “The best one on the market at the moment,” he answered.

            “Comet 260,” we both said. Dad handed me the broom and I nearly exploded from excitement.

            “Dora, you have to be more careful on this broom,” he said. “It’s much faster than your mother’s.”

            Okay. Can I please fly it now?” I whined. Dad laughed.

            “Alright,” he said. “But only where I can see you.” I pouted but got on the broom and took off.

            I flew around for a bit before dad got out his broom and our practice Quaffle; dad always thought I’d play Quidditch at School.

            I don’t know how long we were out there playing before mum called us in for supper.

            “If you keep playing like that Dora, you’ll be an excellent chaser,” dad said.

            “Really?” I asked.

            “Absolutely.”

            “Alright, no more talk about Quidditch at the table,” mum said. “Go on and eat your supper before it gets cold; I made your favorite.”

            “Yum,” I said.

            “We were about halfway through supper when our tawny owl with bright blue eyes flew in through the open window carrying our mail. Dad got up from the table and walked over to the owl to get it.

            “Thank you Skye,” he said. Mum and dad let me name our owl so I came up with Skye from her really bright blue eyes; like the sky. “Looks like you’re quite popular today, Dora; all the mail is for you.”

            “A bit late to be getting it,” mum said. “I’m guessing it has to do with specifics.”

            “I wonder why,” I said. Dad handed me the mail and most of it was birthday cards from relatives. I opened them all up until I reached the last one.

            It was thick and heavy, with emerald-green ink written on the yellowish parchment. On the back was a purple wax seal of a coat of arms with a lion, eagle, badger, and snake surrounding an ‘H.’

            I looked over at mum and dad to see then smiling at the letter in my hand.

            I tore it open at the seal and pulled it out. It read:

 

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

 

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

( _Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc. Chf. Warlock,_

_Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)_

Dear Ms. Hopkins,

        We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find an enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment.

         Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

   
  
---  
  
 

I was so excited that I was bouncing in my seat.

            “Looks like we’ll be taking a trip to Diagon Alley soon,” mum said.

            “Yay, yay, yay, yay,” I said as I continued to bounce in my seat. I had only been there once before, and that was when we bought Skye. I loved it there.

            “Calm down Dora,” dad said as he laughed. “You’ll explode if you keep doing that.” I stopped right away and stuck my tongue out at him.

            “And after that,” he said while picking me up. “It’s time for bed.”

            “But-” I said.

            “No buts, Dora,” mum interrupted. “You had a big day today and it’s late, so go on up to bed.

            “Fine,” I said and went right upstairs to my room after dad put me down.

            We had to wait until summer to go to Diagon Alley since my birthday was in April. My parents didn’t want to keep my school things lying around the house for so long. So on the morning of our trip, I was so excited that when I got up, mum and dad weren’t even up yet.

            I snuck into their room, climbed up onto the bed, and started jumping up and down.

            “Wake…up,” I said between bounces. “I…want…to go…already.” Mum and dad laughed and sat up.

            “How about this,” mum said. “You go and get dressed, and we’ll meet you downstairs for breakfast.”

            “Okay!” I said. I went to jump off of the bed, but my foot got stuck in the blanket and I fell face first onto the floor. “I’m okay,” I said after getting up. Then I ran back to my room.

            “Be careful!” mum yelled after me.

            I quickly got changed and rushed downstairs to see mum and dad already in the kitchen.

            “Not fair,” I mumbled. No matter how early I got up, they were always in the kitchen before me. Dad laughed.

            After breakfast, we took the fireplace to Diagon Alley, meaning we used floo powder to get there. We ended up inside Gringotts which is exactly where we needed to go.

            Once we got money from our vault, we left Gringotts and headed out, onto the street.

            “Do you have your list, Dora?” dad asked.

            “Yup,” I answered while pulling it out of my pocket.

 

HOGWARTS SCHOOL

of WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

 

UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

  1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
  2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
  3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
  4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)



Please note that all pupils’ clothes should carry name tags

 

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

            _The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_

                      by Miranda Goshawk

            _A History of Magic_ by Bathilda Bagshot

            _Magical Theory_ by Adalbert Waffling

            _A Beginners’ Guide to Transfiguration_ by Emeric Switch

            _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_

                       by Phyllida Spore

            _Magical Drafts and Potions_ by Arsenius Jigger

            _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_

                        by Newt Scamander

            _The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_

           by Quentin Trimble  
  
---  
  
 

 

 

 

OTHER EQUIPMENT

            1 wand

            1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)

            1 set glass or crystal phials

            1 telescope

            1 set brass scales

Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

 

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS  
  
---  
  
 

             “We should get your robes first,” mum said. “Then we’ll get your books and-“

            “Come on!” I yelled grabbing hers and dad’s hands and pulling them along.

            I pulled them all the way to Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions.

            When we walked through the door, it was Madam Malkin, who was a squat smiling witch.

            “Hogwarts, dear?” she asked. I nodded with a smile on my face. “Come on back then.”

            I followed her to the back of the shop where she had me stand on a stool, and she slipped a robe over my head and started pinning it up.

            When she was done pinning my robes, I thanked her and we went to Flourish and Blotts.

            We all split up to search for my books, but I got distracted when I got into an aisle filled with books on jokes and pranks. I laughed at every one of the pranks I read.

            “That one’s pretty funny when you actually see it,” dad said. Oops. Busted.

            I turned around and saw dad there holding two of my new schoolbooks.

            “Just slip it into the pile,” he said. “Your mother won’t notice.” He smiled and lifted up the book on top and I slipped it in between the two books. Then he looked away, like he was pretending he didn’t see it.

            Dad told me that he was into pranks and jokes when he went to Hogwarts and apparently I inherited that from him.

            After buying my schoolbooks, mum decided to get my cauldron and go to the Apothecary while dad and I went to get my owl.

            We went to Eyelop’s Owl Emporium which was filled with every different type of owl, that all had bright, colorful eyes.

            I walked around for a bit before I stopped in front of two owls; a snowy owl, and a black owl. The snowy owl had really pretty blue-green eyes, while the black owl had bright purple ones.

            “Did you find one you like yet Dora?” dad asked as he came up to me.

            “I can’t decide,” I said. “I like them both.”

            “Then I guess we’ll just have to get both,” he said.

            “Really?” Dad nodded and we ended up leaving with the two owls.

            That’s always the one thing I liked about being an only child. I wasn’t spoiled, but my parents were able to give me things and do things with me that they couldn’t do if I had a sibling. Sometimes I wished I had a younger brother or sister to play with; I didn’t know anyone my age.

            Dad and I met up with mum right outside of Ollivanders wand shop where a sign outside said: Ollivander: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.

            When mum saw the two owls she gave dad a look and rolled her eyes.

            “Have you come up with names for them yet?” dad asked. The whole walk over here was filled with me thinking about names for my owls.

            “Yes. I’ll call her Athena,” I said referring to the snowy owl. “And her Nyx.”

            “I’m sensing a certain theme here,” mum said. Mum used to be really into mythology, and for some reason, those two names stuck with me.

            I just shrugged and we walked into the wand shop.

            A little bell rang when we walked into the shop. It looked sort of like a library with the piles of narrow boxes that reached the ceiling.

            “Good afternoon,” an old man with wide, pale eyes said as he walked towards us. “I was wondering when I’d be seeing you two again.” I was confused. “If I’m not mistaken, you two came in at almost the same time to buy your wands.”

            “I’m surprised you remembered us, Mr. Ollivander,” mum said.

            “Ah, but what did I say to you when you first came in here Violetta?” he asked. “I remember every wand I’ve ever sold.” Mum smiled. Then Mr. Ollivander noticed me standing between mum and dad. “And now you’re here for your daughter?”

            “Yes,” dad answered. “We were so proud when Callidora got her letter. We knew she would get one of course; she was gifted since birth.”

            “Dad,” I said embarrassed. My hair turned pink and I felt myself blush.

            “Very gifted indeed,” Mr. Ollivander said. “Well Ms. Hopkins, which is your wand arm?” I held out my right arm while he pulled out a tape measure with silver markings on it out of his pocket.

            As he measured me with it, he explained all the different types of wands, and that another wizard’s wand isn’t as good as our own.

            “Try this one,” he said while handing me a wand after he finished measuring me. “Willow and phoenix feather. Eight inches. Just give it a wave.”

            I took the wand and waved it once before Mr. Ollivander took it out of my hand and gave me another one.

            “Mahogany and dragon heartstring. Eleven inches.” I waved it and again, Mr. Ollivander took it from me.

            He then pulled out a third wand and handed it to me. I know I only tried two others, but I was starting to doubt that I would find one.

            “Rosewood and unicorn hair. Ten and a half inches.” I slowly took the wand from his hand with a doubtful expression on my face.

            As soon as I touched the wand, it felt warm, like it was heating up my fingers. I looked at mum and dad who both had smiles on their faces, before waving the wand. Very bright and colorful ribbons shot out of the end of the wand like confetti, and my parents clapped happily.

            “Oh very good. Bravo,” Mr. Ollivander said. I smiled widely as Mr. Ollivander took the wand back and put it into its box. Then he wrapped it in brown paper and handed it back to me. “I can see many wonderful things coming from you, Ms. Hopkins. Many things.”

            Mum and dad paid for my wand and we said good bye to Mr. Ollivander before going back out onto the street.

            We stopped at Florean Fortescue’s for some ice cream, and then we went home, where I’d wait to finally start at Hogwarts. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

            Time flew so quickly, and before I knew it, we were heading to King’s Cross Station so I could board the train to Hogwarts. I woke up really early because I couldn’t wait any longer.

            We got there around half past ten. Dad put my trunk onto a cart and then put Nyx and Athena on top of it. Then he wheeled it into the station.

            Dad stopped in front of Platform nine and Platform ten and looked around.

            “Has it always been this packed with muggles?” he asked.

            “Unfortunately,” mum replied.

            “Alright Vi, you first,” dad said. Mum looked around quickly before walking straight through the barrier. “You next Dora. Just walk straight through; I’ll meet you on the other side.”

            “I looked at dad, who smiled encouragingly, before going straight through the wall.

            On the other side was Platform nine and three-quarters. A scarlet steam engine was next to the platform with a sign over it reading ‘Hogwarts Express.’

            I found mum talking to a familiar looking plump woman with red hair, who was standing next to three boys and a small girl, that all had flaming red hair. The girl looked about eight.

            I walked over and immediately got mum’s attention.

            “There you are!” she said. “Where’s your father?” I looked around for a second to see if I could find him, but turned back to mum and shrugged. “He’ll find us eventually. Anyway, this is Mrs. Weasley, do you remember her?” Then red hair seemed familiar somehow, but I couldn’t put a face to it.

            “Vi, you can’t expect her to remember me; I haven’t seen her in eight years,” Mrs. Weasley said.

            “I suppose you’re right,” mum replied.

            “Dora,” Mrs. Weasley said getting my attention. She actually knew I preferred that nickname. “This is Charlie.” She then pointed to the oldest boy. “Percy.” Then the next. “Ron.” Ron was about nine. “And Ginny.” Ginny was the small girl. She looked like she just couldn’t wait to go to Hogwarts. “The twins are around here somewhere; it’s their first year, too.” Then she looked around, and just then, two more boys came over to us.

            They were identical in every way, but if you looked closely, you could see that one was just slightly taller than the other.

            “There you two are!” Mrs. Weasley said finally noticing them. Then she turned to me and said, “This is Fred and George.”

            “Oi mum! I’m George, that’s Fred,” said the slightly taller one. When he said that, I saw that he had that same mischievous glint in his eyes that dad said I had. It’s how he always knew I was up to something; but really, how he knew I had done something.

            “You’re lying,” I said after Mrs. Weasley apologized for the mix-up and continued her conversation with mum. The two looked surprised at how I flat-out knew they were lying.

            “How did you know?” the real George asked.

            “Not telling,” I answered. Then I spotted dad who was pointing at his watch and motioning for me to come over to him. “Mum, dad says it’s time to go.”

            “Huh? Oh, alright then,” she said. “It was nice seeing you again Molly.”

            “You too, Vi,” she said. “Come by any time.” Then we walked towards dad after I said goodbye to Mrs. Weasley, and leaving the twins with just a quick wink.

            After saying goodbye to mum and dad, and a warning of the “consequences of shifting my appearance too much,” I boarded the train with my trunk and owls, and walked to the closest empty compartment.

            I sat Nyx’s and Athena’s cages on the seat and attempted to put my trunk on the overhead rack, but it was just barely out of my reach.

            “Do you need any help?”

            I turned around and noticed a boy about my age with brown hair and gray eyes. He looked like he normally wouldn’t speak much.

            “Um, yeah sure,” I said. I quickly pulled out my prank book, and placed it on the seat next to Athena’s cage.

            The boy came into the compartment and helped me life my trunk onto the rack.

            “Thanks,” I said.

            “No problem,” he replied. I was just about to ask him if he wanted to sit in the compartment with me, but before I could he said, “I’ll see you at school then,” and walked out.

            “Bye,” I said after he left. ‘ _I guess I’m destined for a lonely life,’_ I thought.

            I sat down in between Nyx and Athena and opened my book to read.

            I was halfway through a prank about having toilets yell insults at you when I heard them.

            “Well look who we’ve got here,” one said.

            “And she’s reading, too,” the other said.

            “So she must be-”

            “Obviously-”

            “What!?” I said annoyed. I looked up to see them smiling in that ‘it’s fun to annoy you’ sort of way.

            “A nerd,” they finished together. It was sort of true, except for the fact that I only ever read prank and joke books. Mum and dad always said I was very smart for my age though.

            “There’s one problem with your theory,” I answered. “The book I’m reading isn’t something a teacher would be proud of.” Then I went back to reading.

            “No way-” one said

            “Can’t be-” the other said.

            “Has to be-”

            “Obviously,” I finished for them. I looked up at them to see shocked looks on their faces. “Oh, I interrupted your twin bonding, didn’t I?”

            “I think that settles it George,” Fred said.

            “Right you are Fred,” George replied. Then both of them walked into the compartment and sat across from me.

            “Alright then,” I said completely confused. I closed my book and set it down next to Nyx who looked at it quickly before looking at me with a mischievous glint in her bright purple eyes. Out of my two owls, Nyx was a bit of a trouble maker, which always made me laugh; she really does represent her name well. Athena is the total opposite of Nyx; they are both very smart, but Athena hates mischief and is more intelligent than any owl I’ve ever met. She knows things that most owls and other animals don’t, and has a very human nature; like right now for instance.

            “Did your owl-”

            “Just roll her eyes? Yes,” I finished. I opened her cage and she immediately went up on my shoulder and gave Nyx the ‘I’m superior’ look. “This is Athena,” I said while she rubbed her head against my outstretched hand. “And this evil creature over here is Nyx.”

            “Evil? How can an owl be evil?” I think it was Fred that asked.

            “She likes picking fights with Athena,” I answered. “She finds it hilarious.” Athena went back into her cage and refused to look at or in Nyx’s direction.

            “A pranking owl,” George said. “I like her already.” If Nyx could smile she would have been; she loves compliments.

            “I’m finding things a bit unfair here,” said Fred. I finally figured out who was who.

            “How so?” I asked.

            “Well you know us-” he said.

            “But we don’t know you,” George finished.

            “Sorry,” I said with a slight blush forming on my cheeks. “Callidora Hopkins; but everybody calls me Dora.”

            “What do you think Fred?” George asked.

            “I’m thinking the same thing you are George,” Fred answered. _‘Aren’t they always?’_ I thought.

            “Which is?” I asked.

            “You don’t look like a ‘Dora,’” they replied in unison. I shrugged. I never really had a preference for what people called me, although I favored ‘Dora’ over my full name.

            “We’ll come up with something,” Fred added.

            “Okay,” I replied. I wasn’t sure what they were going to come up with, but what I did know was that I wouldn’t be alone at school like I thought I would be.

            “So,” Fred said after a moment. “What got you interested in joining the dark side?”

            “Well they told me there would be cookies, but they lied. So now I’m stuck,” I answered with a straight face. They just stared at me with a ‘she’s a nutter’ look on their faces before the smile I had been forcing back crept in, causing all of us to laugh.

            “My dad said I was destined to be an evil genius,” I said after we stopped laughing. “He pulled his fair share of pranks when he was at Hogwarts, and I was born on April Fool’s Day.”

            “Its fate-” Fred started.

            “At it’s finest,” George finished. I was lost again. “We were born on April Fool’s Day, too.”

            “Wicked,” I said.

            The rest of the train ride was filled with future prank ideas. So, by the time we were changed into our robes, and heading to the boats that would take us across the lake to Hogwarts, we had a huge list of things to do.

            “So Id, where do you reckon you’ll be sorted?” Fred asked.

            “Id?” I replied confused. I thought about it before saying, “Like the devil on your shoulder.” The twins grinned at me.

            “I’ll probably end up in Gryffindor,” I sad. “Although my mum thinks I’ll be in Ravenclaw.”

            “Better Ravenclaw than Slytherin,” Fred said.

            “Or worse,” George said. “You could be in Hufflepuff.” We all laughed at that joke.

            “What about you?” I asked.

            “Gryffindor,” they replied.

            “All our family has been,” Fred continued.

            We talked more and before we knew it, we were being led into the Great Hall by Professor McGonagall to be sorted.

            She placed a stool in front of all of us and then put a patched and frayed wizard’s hat on top of it.

            _‘The Sorting Hat,’_ I thought. Mum and dad told me all about it already.

            Everyone became quiet, and then a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and sang:

 

_“Oh you may not think I’m pretty,_

_But don’t judge on what you see,_

_I’ll eat myself if you can find_

_A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,_

_Your top hats sleek and tall,_

_For I’m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

_And I can top them all._

_There’s nothing hidden in your head_

_The Sorting Hat can’t see,_

_So try me on and I will tell you_

_Where you ought to be._

_You might belong in Gryffindor,_

_Where dwell the brave at heart,_

_Their daring, nerve, and chivalry_

_Set Gryffindors apart;_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

_Where they are just and loyal,_

_Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

_And unafraid of toil;_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

_If you’ve a ready mind,_

_Where those of wit and learning,_

_Will always find their kind;_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin_

_You’ll make your real friends,_

_Those cunning folk use any means_

_To achieve their ends._

_So put me on! Don’t be afraid!_

_And don’t get in a flap!_

_You’re safe in hands (though I have none)_

_For I’m a Thinking Cap!”_

            Everyone applauded when the hat finished and then it bowed to each of the four house tables.

            Professor McGonagall stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

            “When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted,” she said.

            She then began reading out the names, and one by one, first years were sorted.

            When she called “Diggory, Cedric,” I noticed it was the boy who helped me on the train.

            “HUFFLEPUFF!” the hat shouted. The table on the right cheered as Cedric went and sat down at their table.

            I watched him a little longer as he sat there before turning back to Professor McGonagall.

            “Hopkins, Callidora!”

            Fred and George shoved me a bit to get me going, and soon I was sitting on the stool with the Sorting Hat on my head.

            “Hmm,” said a small voice in my ear; it was the Sorting Hat. “Very intelligent. You would do well in Ravenclaw. You have plenty of courage, and a knack for rule breaking. Plenty of talent, too. Better be GRYFFINDOR!”

            I took off the hat and happily walked over to the cheering Gryffindor table, where I sat across from the two oldest Weasleys and saved seats for Fred and George.

            “Johnson, Angelina” and “Jordan, Lee” were next to be sorted into Gryffindor.

            Finally it was Fred and George’s turns to be sorted as they were the last two standing there. As they both said, they were sorted into Gryffindor as well, and took a seat on either side of me.

            Fred, George, and I talked throughout the feast, and sometimes Fred and George’s brother Charlie would jump in. Their other brother Percy, however, didn’t say anything; he was too busy talking to who I could only guess were his friends.

            After the feast, we went to the Gryffindor common room which was behind a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. When our Prefect gave her the password, the portrait swung open and we went into the common room.

            Once the Prefect told us where our dormitories were, Fred, George, and I were separated for the first time since we met on the Hogwarts Express.

            We said goodnight to each other and I went to my dormitory and found my things in front of a four-poster with red curtains (there were five total).

            I noticed Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet were also in my dormitory, but as we were too tired to talk, we changed into our pajamas and climbed into bed.

            That night I fell asleep with the realization that I finally had friends.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

     I couldn't believe that it was my third year already. Time flew by so fast that it seemed like only yesterday I was sitting on the train meeting Fred and George.

     They are still my best friends if that's what you're going to ask, as well as Lee Jordan, who after two days was already welcomed into our small group. I also became great friends with Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet.

     During second year, Fred, George, and I tried out for the quidditch team. The twins became the new beaters, and Angelina and I became the new chasers while Alicia was our reserve. Our captain, Oliver Wood, was our keeper, and Charlie, Fred and George's brother, was our seeker. Last year was Charlie's last year, so we were going to have a hard time finding a new seeker.

     The twins and I were a force to be reckoned with. We were always behind every prank that happened at school, and sometimes Lee would help. What was really funny, was that I was rarely ever caught, if not at all. Fred and George couldn't figure out why, but I knew it was because a teacher would never suspect a good student like me. Fred and George got good marks too, but they were more upfront with the pranks where I usually hung back and watched as it all happened.

     I know you're wondering if the twins know about me being a metamorphmagus, and they do. When they found out during first year, instead of freaking out like I thought they would, they said it was the coolest thing they've ever seen, and it helped us prank more. I almost never got caught.

     Mum and dad came with me to King's Cross like they did every year, but they couldn't stay long since they had to work today. Mum and dad are Aurors, or dark wizard catchers. These days they normally don't have to work, but today was one of those exceptions.

     "Have fun at school this year, Dora," mum said.

     "I will," I replied.

     "Try not to get into too much trouble though," dad added. "And keep the twins in line; if Molly has to send another howler, she'll have a heart attack." I laughed. After their mum had found out about the stuff we had done, although she didn't think I had any part in it, the twins were banned from seeing me for two weeks over the summer after first year. Of course that didn't stop me from coming to see them. I still came over, and when no one was watching, I snuck up to their room to plan for new pranks.

     "Is Remus coming to see me off this year?" I asked. Remus Lupin was my godfather and really good friends with mum and dad. I didn't get to see him much, but he always sent me birthday presents and came by when he could.

     "I'm sorry sweetie, but you know he can't," mum said. "You know how he gets around this time." I sighed. You see, Remus was a werewolf, which is why I don't get to see him that often; it affected his health, and it isn't good for me to be around him when it was close to the full moon, like it is now.

     "I know you miss him Dora," dad said. "We all do, but I'm sure he'll write to you like he always does." I crossed my arms and dad sighed. "Alright, I wasn't supposed to tell you, but I will anyway." I slowly uncrossed my arms. "He promised he'd be here when you came home at the end of the year." I smiled brightly at this and hugged my parents goodbye.

     "Don't forget to write!" mum yelled after me.

     "I won't!" I yelled back. Then I was off to search for Fred and George.

     I crossed the barrier, and soon found them talking to their mum and Percy.

     "Oh, are you a  _Prefect_ , Percy?" Fred said. "You should have said something, we had no idea."

     "Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said George. "Once-"

     "Or twice-"

     "A minute-"

     "All summer-"

     "Oh shut up," Percy said.

     "How come Percy gets new robes anyway?" Fred asked.

     "Because he's a  _Prefect_ ," Mrs. Weasley said. "All right, dear, well, have a good term-send me an owl when you get there."

     After kissing Percy on the cheek, he left and she turned to the twins.

     "Now, you two- this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've- you've blown up a toiler or-"

     "Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."

     "Great idea though, thanks, Mum."

     "It's not  _funny_. And look after Ron."

     "Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us," Fred said.

     "Shut up," Ron replied. Fred and George always make fun of their brothers; especially Percy.

     I snuck up to them just as the whistle for the train sounded, and Ginny started crying. She really wanted to go to Hogwarts already.

     "Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."

     "We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."

     " _George!"_

     "Only joking, Mum."

     "Of course they are," I said. "Can't have them blowing things up now, can I?"

     "Id!" the twins yelled while squishing me in a hug.

     "It's been ages," George said.

     "Of course," I replied. "It's not like I just saw you two yesterday."

     "Ah, but that's way too long," Fred said. I rolled my eyes at them.

     "Don't worry Mrs. Weasley," I said. "I'll keep my eyes on these two, and I'll watch out for Ron."

     "Thank you Dora," she said.

     "No problem."

     "You boys would do well to start behaving more like her." The twins rolled their eyes at her.

     "Now let's go find a place to sit," I said.

     We waved to Ginny and Mrs. Weasley as the train started moving.

     I ended up losing Fred and George as I was still waving goodbye to Ginny and Mrs. Weasley. So I figured I'd see if Ron knew where they went.

     "Hi Ron," I said as I found his compartment. He was sitting across from a boy with messy black hair and glasses.

     "Oh, hey Dora," he said while his ears turned a light shade of pink.

     "Have you seen your brothers?"

     "They said they were going to see Lee down the middle of the train."

     "Of course they did," I muttered. "They have got to stop ditching me on the train." I looked back at them to see that they were both staring at me. "See you at school then Ron. And nice to meet you…"

     "Harry," the other boy said.

     "Nice to meet you Harry." Then I walked off in search of the twin idiots I call my best friends.

     I finally found them in a compartment on the middle of the train with Lee, who had a box sitting on the seat next to him.

     I walked up to the twins, smacked each of them on the head, and sat in between them.

     "Oi! What was that for?" Fred said while rubbing the side of his head.

     "Ditching me on the train again, you stupid git," I replied.

     "Aw c'mon Id, don't be like that," George said.

     "You know you love us," Fred continued.

     "Yeah, yeah," I said. "So what are we planning on doing with the tarantula?"

     "I was thinking we'd set it loose in the common room," Lee said.

     "No, that's way too boring," I replied. "I was thinking we'd set it loose in the first year Slytherin dorms."

     "Marry me, Id," Fred said causing me to laugh. He's been saying that since the beginning of second year, ever since I came up with this brilliant prank to dye the Slytherin's hair red and gold.

     "Sorry Fred, but we both know I love George more than you," I said. This was my usual answer to his insane proposals. And as usual, Fred pouted.

     "Look at it this way mate," George said. "Better me than Lee."

     "Yeah," Lee agreed. "Hey!" We all laughed after that.

     We spent the rest of the train ride talking and eating sweets from the trolley. When I say talking, I mean planning for future pranks.

     Once we arrived, we got out of the compartment and headed out onto the platform.

     "I almost forgot to tell you Id," Fred said as I climbed onto his back. He started carrying me to the carriages after I fell asleep on the train last year; I hadn't gotten any sleep the night before.

     "What?" I asked.

     "Guess who we met on the train?" George asked.

     "I don't know," I replied. I didn't feel like guessing; I was tired and hungry.

     "Harry Potter," they said.

     "Yeah right," I answered.

     "No really Id," Fred said. "He was sitting with Ron on the train."

     "We helped him with his trunk," George added.

     "We could introduce you to him," Fred said as he put me down when we got to the carriages. He said it in that 'I'm showing off how much better I am than you' attitude he gets with me sometimes.

     "As good as that sounds Fred, I've already met him," I replied as I climbed into the empty carriage.

     "When?" he asked as he sat down next to me.

     "While I was looking for the two of you after you ditched me." Then I crossed my arms and turned away from his as George and Lee joined us.

     "Aw Id, we said we were sorry," Fred whined. George and Lee knew I was messing with him and were trying to contain their laughter, while I turned further away from him. "You said you forgave us."

     "Lee, would you mind switching seats with me?" I asked, still pretending to be angry with Fred. "I keep hearing this really annoying sound; kind of like a fwooper."

     Lee and George were trying really hard not to laugh now since we all knew from Care of Magical Creatures that fwoopers are bloody annoying birds.

     Lee nodded his head, seeing as if he would have tried to say anything, he would have started laughing.

     Instead of getting up to move though, I said "You know, if I were to get a fwooper, I'd name it Fred."

     We couldn't contain our laughter after that, and we ended up laughing throughout the rest of the short ride to the castle.

     When the carriages stopped moving, Fred was the first to get out, with me right behind him. I noticed that his arms were crossed and he wasn't looking at me.

     ' _So he was going to be like that now?'_  I thought.

     "Fred, you know I was just kidding," I said. He still wouldn't look at me, but I knew he wasn't actually mad at me; he was just trying to get back at me.

     George and Lee were watching completely amused as this happens all the time.

     "Fine Fred," I said while pretending not to cry. "Be that way." Then I started walking away while rubbing at my eyes.

     "Don't cry Id," he said as he caught up to me. "I was just trying to get back at you." I looked at the ground so he couldn't see me smirking. He's  _so_ predictable. "I'm sorry."

     "It's okay," I replied while sniffling. George and Lee caught up to us by this point and were still watching with amused expressions. "And Fred?"

     "Yeah?" he asked. Then I looked up at him, with no traces of tears or anything on my face.

     "You are such a sucker," I said. George and Lee laughed at him and we started to walk towards the castle.

     "That was a nasty trick you played on me," Fred said as he slung his arm over my shoulders. "I just might have to get you back for that."

     "I'd like to see you try," I replied.

     "Is that a challenge?"

     "I believe it is mate," George said.

     "Not again," Lee groaned. Fred and I had this ongoing bet that started first year. He claims that he can outprank me, and I say he can't. So far, I was right.

     "Seriously Fred," I said. "Just give it a rest already. You're not going to beat me."

     "You see, that's where you're wrong Id," he replied as we sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. "I have more than a few tricks up my sleeve this year. You just wait." Then he winked.

     "Sure," I said while rolling my eyes.

     Then Professor McGonagall came in followed by the first years who kept looking around in amazement. I saw Ron who was talking to who I now knew was Harry Potter. Ron looked like he was about to hurl.

     "What did you tell Ron he had to do?" I asked the twins.

     "Oh nothing," George replied.

     "Well there was that one thing-" Fred added.

     "That might have-"

     "Scared him-"

     "Quite a bit," they chorused.

     "Your mum is going to kill you both, you know that?" I said. "What did you tell him he had to do?"

     "Nothing bad," George answered.

     "Just wrestle a troll," Fred added.

     "I wonder why Ron hasn't died of pure fear yet," I replied.

     "He's used to it," they replied.

     "Besides," Fred said. "You're the one people need to watch out for."

     "Sure Fred," I said while rolling my eyes again. Then everyone got quiet as the Sorting Hat sung its song.

     Once that was over, Professor McGonagall began calling out the names of the first years.

     Lavender Brown was the first to be sorted into Gryffindor, followed by Seamus Finnigan and Hermione Granger, who in my opinion seemed better off in Ravenclaw.

     When I heard the name "Malfoy" called I scowled. I hated that whole family,

     As soon as "Potter, Harry!" was called, everyone began whispering, minus me. The twins were anxious because obviously, they wanted him to be in Gryffindor.

     He was up there for a while before the hat finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR!"

     Our table was screaming from the excitement.

     Percy shook Harry's hand and I rolled my eyes at him.  _'Suck up,'_  I thought.

     Fred and George on the other hand, kept yelling "We got Potter!" so I smacked them both on the head to shut them up.

     As expected, Ron was sorted into Gryffindor, and once the sorting was over, Dumbledore got up to make his pre-feast speech.

     We ate and talked throughout the feast, and I was happy to finally be back at school.

     Harry and Ron seemed to really hit it off, and I was happy they found a friend in each other. Percy was chatting it up with Hermione about lessons, which I completely ignored.

     Once the feast was over, Dumbledore got up again to make the start of term speech.

     "Ahem- just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you," he said.

     "Which we will gladly ignore," Fred whispered.

     "First years should note that the forest is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well," Dumbledore continued while looking over at the twins and I.

     "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors."

     "Only because he can't," George added.

     "Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

     "The only announcement that matters," I said.

     "And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

     "Aw, I want to die a slow and torturous death," Fred said.

     "Guess we can't go there then," I replied.

     Then Dumbledore had us sing the school song, and the twins and I finished last, singing along to a very slow funeral march.

     "Aw, music," Dumbledore said while wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

     The twins and I got up, followed by Lee, and we ran ahead of Percy to the common room.

     We passed by some floating walking sticks which were headed towards the corridor with the entrance to the common room in it.

     "I hope Peeves throws those at Percy," Fred muttered.

     "I think we all do," I said. We gave the Fat Lady the password, and climbed through the portrait hole and into the common room.

     We said good night and headed up to our dorms, as the first day back always makes us tired.

     When I fell asleep, my dreams were filled with a three year old me, laughing and chasing a one year old boy with black hair as he flew around a house on a toy broom, while all of the adults laughed at us.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 

      It had been over a week since I had that dream, and all I was able to work out was that my parents and Remus were some of the adults in the room. I still hadn’t figured out who the little boy was, or the other people.

      “Earth to Id,” Fred said while waving his hand in my face.

      “Oh sorry,” I replied. “What did you say?”

      “I _said_ , that we have lessons with the Hufflepuffs today,” he replied.

      “Yeah. Right. I knew that,” I answered.

      “You okay?” he asked. “You’ve been acting off lately. You’re not going mad are you?”

      “It’s nothing,” I replied. “Just thinking.”

      “Well don’t think too much; your head might explode.”

      “Oh haha,” I said sarcastically. “Very funny Fred. Let’s go, we’re going to be late.”

      “Right,” he said. “Wouldn’t want to ruin your attendance record.” I rolled my eyes.

      “Oi! George, Lee!” I yelled at the two who were still eating, “Let’s go already.”

      We walked to Defense Against the Dark Arts, which we had with Professor Quirrell.

     “He’s definitely hiding something in his turban,” I said.

     “And I’m telling you it’s garlic to ward off the vampires,” Fred replied.

     “It definitely explains the bad smell,” George added.

     “Whatever,” I said.

      Fred and I sat together towards the back with George and Lee right behind us. Obviously we were the last ones in since we hate being early.

      All throughout the lesson, Fred kept poking me and I accidentally yelled at him a bit too loudly.

     “M-miss Hopkins,” Professor Quirrell stammered. “M-move to the f-front.” I scowled at Fred who grinned at me, before gathering my things and moving to the only open seat in the front of the class.

     “Stupid Fred,” I muttered when I sat down. “Poking me the whole lesson. Bloody git.”

     “You alright?”

     I looked up to see gray eyes staring at me curiously.

     “Yeah I’m fine” I replied after a second.

     “That’s good,” he said. “I was wondering whether I should be concerned or not.”

     “Why?”

     “Well I wasn’t sure if you normally talked to yourself,” he answered.

     “Oh,” I said my hair gaining a pink tint from embarrassment. “No, I uh, don’t.” He smiled at me causing my hair to become even pinker, but I quickly changed it back to normal before he noticed. It was hard to make friends because of what I was.

     “I’m Cedric,” he said once class was over.

     “I’m Dora,” I replied.

     “Id!” Fred yelled, stopping us from having a longer conversation. “Let’s go!”

     “Sorry,” I said while gathering my things.

     “That’s alright,” he replied. “I guess I’ll see you later then.” I smiled and nodded at him before catching up with the twins.

     “Since when are you in a rush to get to class?” I asked.

     “Since when have you cared what I do?” he replied. “Besides, we’ve got lunch now and I’m hungry.”

     “Of course you are.”

     We headed down to the Great Hall for lunch and I sat next to Fred while George and Lee sat on the other side of us. I noticed Oliver Wood sitting a little further down from us, while muttering to himself, no doubt having something to do with Quidditch.

     “Has Wood found a Seeker yet?” I asked. Fred looked over at him and saw the frustrated look on his face.

     “Well, look on the bright side,” he answered while putting his arm around my shoulders. “If he doesn’t find a Seeker, you could always do it.”

     “Yeah right,” I replied. He knew I’d never give up being a Chaser. “Besides, I’d be a rubbish Seeker.” Then Wood came over to us. “Any luck on finding a new Seeker?”

     “No,” Wood replied. “At this rate I don’t think we’ll ever find one good enough to replace Charlie.”

     “Cheer up Wood,” Fred started.

     “Yeah, I’m sure you’ll find someone,” George added.

     “Well if I don’t, I need a back up,” he said. “So Dora, I was thinking I’d move you from Chaser to Seeker, and move Katie up from reserve.”

     “Why me though?” I asked.

     “Because you’re the fastest flyer on the team this year, and we someone with more experience playing to fill the spot.”

     “Fine,” I sighed. “But only if you don’t find anyone else.” He smiled and walked away, and the twins and Lee started laughing. “Oh shut up.” Then I got up and started walking to Transfiguration.

     “Oh come on Id,” Fred said as he caught up to me.

     “Yeah,” George added. “It’s just funny that he asked you that.”

     “Sure,” I replied while rolling my eyes.

     Once Transfiguration was over, Fred came over to me as I opted to sit with George so I wouldn’t get yelled at again.

     “It’s completely obvious why you’re on the team anyway,” he said, continuing our conversation from earlier.

     “What? Other than the fact that I’m good at Quidditch?” I replied.

     “He totally fancies you,” George answered.

     “He does not!” I yelled. “Are you two completely mental!?” Then Wood ran over to us.

     “I found a Seeker,” he told us. “So you don’t have to worry about it Dora. I saw Fred smirk out of the corner of my eye, and I kicked him.

     “So who is it then?” George asked. Wood looked to see if anybody was around.

     “Harry Potter,” he whispered.

     “Wicked,” the twins said.

     “Keep it a secret,” he warned. “I don’t want anyone finding out just yet.” The twins saluted him before he smiled at me quickly and ran off, probably to let the rest of the team know.

     I looked over at Fred and George to see them smiling evilly at me.

     “What are you up to?” I asked suspiciously.

     “Nothing,” they replied while slowly moving in the direction of where Wood ran off.

     “Don’t you dare,” I hissed at them, completely aware of what they were up to.

     “Too late!” Fred yelled before he and George took off.

     “Get back here!” I yelled while chasing after them.

     I saw them round a corner so I went right after them but ended up running into something.

     “You okay?” they said while steadying me. I looked up to see that I had accidentally run into Cedric.

     “Yeah I’m fine,” I replied. “Sorry for running into you.”

     “That’s alright. So why were you running anyway?”

     “Fred and George,” I answered. “You haven’t seen them have you?”

     “Yeah, they looked like they were headed to the Great Hall.”

     “Thanks,” I said while running in that direction. “See you later!”

     I finally spotted them walking away from Harry and Ron. When they saw me, they ran off again.

     “Hey Ron, Harry,” I said while running up to them.

     “Oh, hey Dora,” Ron said, his ears turning pink.”

     “Congrats on making the team Harry; I play Chaser.” He nodded his head with a smile. “So anyway, do you know where the twins are off to?”

     “They said Lee found a new secret passageway out of the school,” Ron answered right away.

     “Secret passageway my arse,” I said. “Well, thanks anyway.” Then I ran off in the direction of where I last so them.

     When I finally caught up to them, I was out of breath from running so much. And wouldn’t you know it, they were talking to Lee.

     “I’m…going to…kick…your sorry…arses…into…next week,” I said while trying to catch my breath.

     “Now that’s not a very nice thing to say,” Fred said.

     “Yeah. We haven’t done anything,” George added.

     “Yet,” they both said.

     “You two are so…insufferable!” I yelled. “First, you started poking me until I got so mad at you that I yelled, and Professor Squirrel made me move,” I said to Fred after poking him hard in the chest. “Then, you insist that the only way I got on the Quidditch team is because Wood fancies me, which is NOT true. And then you make me miss dinner because you ran all over the school, making me think you went after him!”

     By this time, my fists were clenched at my sides, and I knew my hair was flaming red, so much so, that from a distance, it would probably look like my head was on fire.

     “What the bloody hell is wrong with you two?!”

     “Calm down, Id,” Fred said. “We were just joking.”

     “Well you took it too far,” I replied still angry. “You should learn not to be so cruel when you joke around; especially with me.” Then I walked off towards the kitchens to get something to eat.

     After getting a few biscuits from the elves, I went back to the common room and ate them by the fire.

     I realized I hadn’t replied to the letter from my godfather, so I pulled out my quill and some parchment, and started to write.

 

_Dear Uncle Moony,_

_Of course I’m going to call you this when I talk to you. Well, not in front of mum, because if she found out that I had the map, she’d burn it. Dad wouldn’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling you secretly want it around too. Dad still tells me stories about your adventures at school, and I always find them hilarious._

_Anyway, sorry for not writing back sooner, but I was a little busy with school and such. Everything is fine here, and school’s the same. Of course I’ve been up to no good, when am I not? I still haven’t been caught, which I find hilarious._

_I was wondering if you could tell me something, too. I’ve been having this strange dream ever since school started, but it seems more like a memory than a dream. It was when I was really little, and you, mum, and dad were there. Also there were a few others, and a little boy flying around on a toy broom._

_Can’t wait to see you over Christmas break!_

_Love,_

_Dora_

     Once I finished the letter, I placed it in an envelope, addressed it, and put it into my bag to take down to the owlery in the morning.

     The portrait hole swung open then and the twins walked through followed closely by Lee. I was still angry with them so I gathered my things and went up to bed.

     I had that same dream when I went to sleep, and it woke me up. I wasn’t able to go back to sleep, so I went down to the common room to try and clear my head.

     I didn’t realize how long I’d been down there until I saw the faintest bit of sunlight creeping in through the windows; I had stayed up all night.

     Quietly, I made my way back up to my dorm to get dressed, and by the time I finished getting ready, everyone else was up and preparing for the day. So, I made my way down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

     There were a few other students down there by the time I came down, so I just sat at the table and started grabbing some food while trying not to yawn,

     When I was done, I grabbed a few extra pieces of toast, wrapped them up in a napkin, and headed towards the owlery to deliver my letter.

     I was mid yawn when I bumped into someone. I only knew it was a person because walls don’t have arms; well _normal_ walls don’t.

     “I’m – yawn  – sorry,” I said. “I’ll – yawn – try to – yawn – pay more attention – yawn – next time.”

     “Rough night then, eh?”

     I looked up and saw Cedric standing there with a sympathetic smile on his face while he steadied me.

     “Not really,” I replied with a yawn. “Couldn’t sleep.”

     “Bad dream?”

     “No. Just a lot on my mind – yawn – I guess.” Cedric nodded understandingly.

     “So, where are you off to?” he asked.

     “Owlery,” I replied. “I’m sending a letter to my godfather.”

     “Would you mind if I joined you?” he asked, with a slight blush forming on his cheeks.

     “Not at all,” I replied, my cheeks and hair turning pink in response. I was suddenly wide-awake and had no idea where the newfound energy came from.

     “You know, your hair is pink,” Cedric said as we started heading towards the owlery. All that did was make it worse.

     I was finally able to gain control over my embarrassment and change my hair back to the natural brown that it was by the time we reached the owlery.

     “You’re a metamorphmagus, aren’t you?” he asked as I called Athena down.

     “Oh…uh…yeah,” I replied while tying the letter to Athena’s outstretched leg. “Pretty weird, right?”

     “Well, maybe to some people, but I actually think it’s pretty cool,” he answered, causing me to smile. Ever since then, we’ve been really great friends.

     Two days after that, Fred and George ran up to me, begging me to speak to them again. Well, Fred begged; George stood there and nodded his head at everything Fred said to me.

     It was now the day of our first “official” Hogsmeade trip. It wasn’t as much of a big deal for Fred, George, Lee, and I since we had been sneaking out there since first year, but it was nice to know we couldn’t get in trouble for going this time.

     “Oh come on, Id. I thought you forgave us,” Fred complained. “How come you won’t go to Hogsmeade with us?”

     “I told you, Fred, I’ve made other plans,” I answered.

     “Well, we all know you’re not going with Angelina and Alicia since they’re coming with us, so who is it then?”

     You see, ever since I told Fred and George that I wasn’t going to Hogsmeade with them last week, they’ve been bugging me about who I was going with. I obviously wasn’t going to tell them because then they’d bother me about it for the rest of my life.

     “Did you ever think that maybe I’m not going?” I said trying to get them to stop asking me. I was so close to just telling them to sod off.

     “Right,” George answered. “Like you’d miss a Hogsmeade trip.” They know me too well.

     “And besides,” Fred added. “You wouldn’t be standing in the Entrance Hall if you weren’t going.”

     “Fine, you caught me,” I said. “I am going.”

     “So you’re going to tell us who you’re going with?” Lee practically begged while the twins had hopeful looks on their faces.

     “Oh fine,” I said with an overdramatic sigh. “I’ll tell you.”

     “So who is it?” Fred asked eagerly. I looked around quickly, and the first person I saw, I knew would be a great way to get back at them.

     “I’m going with Montague,” I answered with a straight face.

     “WHAT?!” the three of them yelled.

     “Are you completely mental?!” Fred added. “Why in the name of Merlin, are you going with that prat?!”

     “Oh, I’m not,” I replied calmly. “Now you know not to mess with me.” I winked at them with a smile on my face as all of their mouths dropped open. So, I did what any person would do in a situation like this; I took a picture of them. That snapped them right out of it.

     “I hope you know we’re getting you back for that,” Fred said.

     “Course you are,” I replied while rolling my eyes.

     “You ready to go Dora?” I smiled as the twins’ and Lee’s mouths dropped open in shock yet again. I also took a picture of that one, too.

     “Sure am,” I replied with a smile.

     We started to walk away, but Fred called me back.

     “One minute I said before walking back. “What do you want, Fred?”

     “What are you doing?!” he whispered angrily.

     “Me? Oh, I’m just taking your wonderful advice Fred. After all, it _was_ your idea in the first place, so I guess I have to thank you for that.”

     “I never thought you’d do it,” he replied while his face turned red from anger.

     “I didn’t,” I said angrily. “ _He_ did. And it’s none of your business who I go to Hogsmeade with anyway.”

     “Well I have a right to know!” he yelled.

     “You know now!” I yelled back causing my hair to turn red.

     “Hope you have _loads_ of fun with _him_ , then!”

     “Oh, I will! Want to know why? _You_ won’t be there!” Then I walked off, leaving Fred steaming, and George and Lee with the same shocked expressions on their faces.

     “You alright?”

     “Yeah, peachy,” I answered still a bit angry. Then we left for Hogsmeade.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 

“I’m sorry about that,” I said as Oliver and I walked into Honeydukes.

“Don’t be. I’m sorry I made you fight with him.”

“You still can’t tell them apart, can you?” I asked. He shook his head. “All you need to know is that Fred’s a no good, stupid git.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” he replied while grabbing the chocolate frogs for me. “Are you really going to eat all these chocolate frogs?”

“Of course not,” I answered. “Some of these are for my godfather.” He laughed and shook his head at me. I guess he didn’t realize that my godfather really was a chocolate addict.

Oliver and I got a few more things from Honeydukes before we walked out to go into another shop.

“Do you mind if we go into Scrivenshaft’s?” I asked. “I need to get a few things.”

“Not at all,” he replied. “I need to get more ink anyway.”

After getting a few quills and some ink, we decided to go to The Three Broomsticks for butterbeer.

As we were walking, Oliver suddenly took my hand in his, and I smiled up at him as he smiled down at me. The happy moment was short-lived though, as Fred walked by us. He was walking out of The Three Broomsticks followed closely by George and Lee, when he spotted my hand in Oliver’s. His face suddenly went very red and he stormed off, leaving George and Lee running after him.

We walked into the pub and I got a table while Oliver ordered our drinks.

“Please tell me you two will stop fighting before our first Quidditch match,” he said when he sat down. “Because I’d really hate to see you get hit in the head by a Bludger because one of our beaters is angry with you.”

“Don’t look at me,” I replied. “I don’t even know why he’s mad at me in the first place. He’s the one that started yelling at me for no reason.”

Since it’s normal for people to walk in and out of the pub, I paid no mind when the door opened and closed. But when I saw a familiar head of red hair sit down not far from us, I narrowed my eyes inconspicuously at the figure as I noticed we were being watched.

We talked some more and finished our butterbeer, all while George and Lee, as I soon realized was there as well, spied on me.

Oliver took my hand again as we were leaving, and I noticed that George and Lee got up as well. ‘They’re asking for it,’ I thought.

“Do you mind if we make one more stop before we go back?” I asked.

“Sure. Where at?”

“Zonko’s,” I answered with a mischievous glint in my eyes.

“Do I even want to know?”

“Don’t look now,” I whispered so only he could hear me. “But George and Lee have been following us.” He snuck a glance out of the corner of his eye and did in fact notice the pair following us, while trying to be inconspicuous. Oliver shook his head at me and I grinned up at him as we walked into Zonko’s.

I restocked on the essentials, and grabbed a few extra things I would need to get back at George and Lee before Oliver and I made our way back to the castle.

“Today was…interesting,” Oliver said as we walked towards the Great Hall. “I had fun, though.”

“Yeah, me too,” I replied. He smiled at me before giving me a kiss on the cheek, and leaving me to sit with his friends. Since my friends were being nosy gits and bloody idiots, I opted to sit with Angelina, Alicia, and Katie.

Out of all three girls, Katie was probably the one I spent the most time with. Even though she’s in the year below mine, we have a lot in common.

“Why didn’t you come to Hogsmeade with us?” Alicia asked. “You did go, right?”

“’Course I did,” I answered. “I’d never miss a Hogsmeade trip.”

“Then where were you?” Angelina asked. “We were with Lee and the twins in The Three Broomsticks, and when we asked where you were, Fred stormed off and George and Lee ran after him. We haven’t seen them since.”

“I’m not surprised they haven’t told you,” I replied. “I guess I’m a sore spot for them at the moment.” The three girls looked at me in that get-on-with-it eager look, but I ignored it.”

“So?” Alicia nearly begged.

“I was on a date if you must know,” I said calmly while putting food on my plate.

“With who?” Angelina asked. “And why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because it’s honestly not that big of a deal.”

“If it’s not that big of a deal, you should be able to tell us,” Katie said, finally contributing to the conversation.

“Fine,” I sighed. “I went with Oliver.” They all stared at me wide-eyed, with their mouths open in shock. “What?” Still they said nothing; they just stared. “Really? You’re just going to stare at me like that after you begged me to tell you?” Again, I got nothing. “Sometimes I just don’t underst-“

As I tried to finish my sentence, I was cut off by something cold and slimy landing on my head. It dripped down my head and onto my face, and I realized it was a greenish looking goo.

Looking back at the looks the girls had given me, I realized that they weren’t looks of shock, but of horror.

I looked back at the girls, but all three of them had a hand over their mouth, with their eyes wide. So, I peeked over to where I knew Fred was sitting and saw him smirking at me.

The whole hall was silent as I got up, and as calmly as I could, made my way towards the exit with my head held high.

Once the door was closed, I ran all the way up to the common room, with silent tears spilling down my face the whole time.

I cast Evanesco to clear the goo off of my head, and then went to shower, just to make sure it was all off.

When I was all cleaned up, I changed into my comfiest pajamas, and put on the new jumper mum got me, and went back down to the common room to sit by the fire. As soon as I started walking down the stairs though, I heard a lot of yelling, and even saw some of the younger and older girls running up the stairs to get to their dorms.

Once I reached the bottom of the staircase, I saw Angelina, Alicia, Katie, Oliver, Fred, George, and Lee all yelling in the middle of the common room. I couldn’t really make out what they were saying, or rather, what they were yelling at each other, but I heard my name mentioned once or twice.

Someone must have caught sight of me because everyone suddenly stopped yelling, and it got eerily silent in the room.

I walked over to one of the squishy red armchairs in front of the fireplace and sat down.

“Dora,” Katie said cautiously while sitting down on the arm of the chair. She was probably trying to gauge the severity of my emotions at the moment, and to which extreme I was at. “You okay?”

It was even more silent now, it seemed, as everyone awaited my response. So, to add to the suspense, I slowly turned my head to look at Katie before answering, “I’m fine.”

“Really?” she asked, her eyes wide in surprise.

“Mhm,” I answered. “Why wouldn’t I be? It wasn’t like someone was intentionally trying to hurt me, right?” Katie flinched slightly, as well as everyone else who was still in the common room. They all knew how bad my temper flared sometimes, especially if someone tried to upset me, and now was just the beginning of it.

“Well, we just thought that with what happened-“ Alicia cut in.

“Well you thought wrong,” I interrupted a bit angrily. The girls though, knew that I really was upset and just trying to hide it, while the boys really thought that I was angry. “If that’s all, I’m going to bed.”

I got up from my seat, and confidently walked up the stairs, back to my dorm. I knew the girls wouldn’t be too far behind, ready to cheer me up, so I left the curtains open around my bed, and waited for them to walk in.

When they came in, they all sat around me, and waited for me to speak.

“I just can’t believe he’d do something so mean for no reason,” I finally said. “Our pranks never are meant to intentionally hurt each other, so why would he do that?”

“Because he’s a boy,” Alicia said. “And everyone knows that boys are bloody idiots.”

“The only question now is,” Angelina added. “How are you going to get him back?”

“What makes you think I haven’t already?” I countered with a smirk. “Fred Weasley is going to pay for messing with me.”

 

So the next day, Oliver walked me to my first class with Angelina and Alicia right there with us.

I sat with Alicia; close enough to Fred so that we could both see how my “revenge” played out.

As soon as Professor Flitwick started the lesson, Fred reached for his quill so he could start writing down his new prank ideas. However, when he tried to write, the quill unnaturally bent away from his parchment so he couldn’t write. He tried quill after quill, but none of them worked, so he tried to use George’s, but that one didn’t work either.

“Did you do that?” Alicia whispered to me. I nodded with a smirk on my face as she sniggered into her hand. “Is that all you did?”

“No, it gets better,” I replied as Fred reached for his textbook. I guess he figured that if he couldn’t write, he might as well pay attention for once. “Watch this.”

The pair of us watched as Fred continued to try to pry open his Charms book, but failed. Alicia and I both were trying to hide our laughter by this point, as Fred looked utterly ridiculous while trying to pry open his book.

“Won’t George just be able to open it?” Alicia asked as Fred handed the book over to George. I shook my head.

“No, just watch what happens,” I answered. As soon as George attempted to open the book, it sealed itself shut with a padlock. It took everything Alicia and I had to keep ourselves from laughing out loud.

The next few weeks passed in the same manner; Fred would “attempt” to rudely prank me, then I would prank him back worse.

Oliver and I eventually broke up considering we felt more like friends anyway. The only real interesting thing that happened was on Halloween when a troll was found in the dungeon during the feast.

Now it was time for our first Quidditch match, and I was feeling the normal pre-game nerves. Once I was in the air though, my confidence came right back.

The Slytherins were playing dirty as usual, and of course Lee had to mention it, which then caused him to get yelled at by McGonagall.

Eventually, the match came to a close with Harry catching the Snitch for us, or as Flint put it, “nearly swallowing it.”

As we all swooped down to celebrate our win over Slytherin, Alicia pointed behind me, and with a horrified voice yelled, “Dora! Watch out!”  
I turned my head just far enough to see a Bludger slam right into the side of my face before everything went black. 

 

“Why is it that she can’t go through a single match without getting hit by a Bludger?”

“She has!”

“Name one.”

“Every match we’ve had with Hufflepuff.”

“You’re forgetting that one with Ravenclaw last year,” I said, finally able to open my eyes.

“How are you feeling?” Alicia asked.

“Like I’ve been hit on the head by a Bludger,” I replied.

“She’s back,” George said with a laugh.

“Oh haha,” I retorted sarcastically while clutching the side of my aching head. “How much longer do I have to be here?”

“Madam Pomfrey says you have to spend the night,” Angelina answered.

“Brilliant,” I muttered. “Has anyone brought me something to eat?”

“We’ll just go and get you something,” Katie said. Then she, Angelina, and Alicia literally dragged everyone out so it was just me and Fred.

“So…,” Fred said while breaking the silence. “How have you been?”

“Really, Fred?” I asked with a bit of a laugh. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were the one that got hit on the head by a Bludger.”

“Very funny, Id,” he replied while sitting on the chair next to my bed.

“You deserve it. You’ve been acting like a bloody idiot.”

“I know,” he sighed. “George has been telling me that since we started fighting.”

“And?”

“And I’m sorry, alright? I guess I was just mad that you weren’t going to Hogsmeade with us.”

“Aw, was Fweddie jeawous?” I teased. He scoffed.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said. “If anything, it was you who was jealous since you wasted your Hogsmeade visit with Wood.”

“Oh, you caught me.” We both laughed, and by the time everyone got back with food for me, it was like nothing had ever happened.

“So now that everything’s right again between you two,” George said. “Can you show me how you charmed all of Fred’s things?” Everyone laughed.

“Yeah, that was bloody brilliant,” Lee added.

“My dad actually told me how to do it,” I answered. “It’s just a charm that basically prevents you from using certain objects.”

Soon Madam Pomfrey came in and kicked everyone out so I could get some rest.

“We’ve got a lot of catching up to do with our pranks,” Fred said as he and George were leaving. They insisted that they be allowed to stay a few more minutes.

“You’re only saying that because you’ve, once again, fallen behind the mastermind behind it all,” I replied.

“Rub it in, why don’t you?” George said.

“I thought I was already doing that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Fred said. “Just go to sleep you evil genius.”

“Now that’s more like it,” I replied with a smile. The twins shook their heads at me before saying goodnight and leaving me to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

     That first Quidditch match turned into Christmas; Christmas turned into mine and the twins’ birthday; and our birthday turned into the end of the year. I’d be lying if I said nothing had happened this year because something big had.

     Towards the end of the year, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went down to the dungeons where Harry ended up facing Professor Quirrell to keep him from getting the Philosopher’s Stone. So, to cheer him up a bit for being stuck in the hospital wing, and for a good laugh, Fred, George, and I sent him a toilet seat. Sadly, Madam Pomfrey confiscated it, but we still got a good laugh out of stealing it.

     Then, last year, we ended up getting, in my opinion, the worst DADA teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart. I honestly had no idea what girls saw in him; he’s a brainless git who couldn’t even produce a shield charm.

     That year though, the Chamber of Secrets was opened, and the monster in it went around petrifying muggleborns, Filch’s cat, and Nearly Headless Nick. Ginny, Fred and George’s younger sister, was taken into the Chamber, so Harry and Ron went in to save her with Lockhart. Lockhart ended up losing his memory, and Ron and Harry were able to save Ginny. She sure had an eventful first year at Hogwarts.

     On a side note, Cedric and I have been dating since the summer before fourth year. How did that happen you ask? Well, Mum and Dad invited Cedric’s family over for dinner towards the beginning of the summer, and we started hanging out quite a bit. Of course, Mum and Dad were thrilled, and before you ask, no, the twins don’t know yet. Could you imagine what they’d say to me if they knew?

     Normally, I’d be hanging out with the twins over at the Burrow, but since their family won a contest, the whole family decided to go visit Fred and George’s oldest brother Bill in Egypt. Bill works for Gringotts as a curse breaker. Fred and George said it’s a really wicked job, but I haven’t had a single letter from them since their mum grounded them for trying to shut Percy in one of the tombs.

     Just as I was thinking I wasn’t going to see Fred and George until we left for Hogwarts, Percy’s owl, Hermes, appeared at my window with a letter.

     Apparently, the twins weren’t going to be home until the day before we go back to school, meaning they were doing all of their school shopping then, too. All I had to do was convince my parents to wait until the last day so I could meet the twins at the Leaky Cauldron.

     After hours of begging and pleading, I finally convinced my parents to wait until the last day of holidays to go to Diagon Alley.

     On another note, I’ve noticed that lately my parents have been working a lot more than they normally do, and when I ask them why, they always brush it off like it’s no big deal. Also, whenever I come downstairs for breakfast, Dad folds up that day’s Daily Prophet and puts it with his things for work. Now, I normally wouldn’t care because I don’t really read the Daily Prophet, but since my dad wouldn’t even let me see the front page, I got somewhat curious. What was in the Prophet that I wasn’t allowed to see?

     For the rest of the summer, I spent most of my time either with Cedric or trying to spy on my parents while they were having whispered conversations.

     By the last day of holidays, I hadn’t figured out what it was they were talking about or what was going on, but at least I was finally going to see the twins again.

     We arrived at Diagon Alley around dinnertime to try and miss the last minute shoppers, quickly got my things, and headed to the Leaky Cauldron.

     “I notice they haven’t made you two prefects,” Mrs. Weasley said as Mum, Dad, and I walked into the Leaky Cauldron.

     “What do we want to be prefects for?” George replied looking disgusted. “It’d take all the fun out of life.”

     “A chance to be out of bed late at night without getting in trouble?” I interrupted. “Doesn’t seem so bad to me.”

     “Oi! We were on a roll here,” Fred complained.

     “Sure,” I said. “Thanks for the ‘hello’ by the way.” The twins’ evil grins returned, and then they each took turns shaking my hand and elbowing each other to get their turn while telling me how “smashing” it was to see me again.

     “Cut it out,” I said, seizing back my arm and giving them both a sharp slap on the head.

     “That hurts you know!” George yelled.

     “How tragic,” I replied with fake sympathy. I looked over to where Mum and Dad were standing to see them having a frantic, whispered conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

     “So, Id,” Fred said breaking me out of my thoughts. “Your summer must have been awful without us around.”

     “Of course,” I replied. “I had nothing to do all summer but wait for you to come back.”

     “Really?” George asked.

     “Of course not,” I answered. “My life doesn’t revolve around the two of you.”

     “Then what exactly were you doing all summer?” Fred asked skeptically. I glanced over at Mum and Dad again to see that they weren’t looking, before pulling Fred and George away from everyone else.

     “I’ve been spying on my parents,” I whispered. “I think they’re hiding something from me.”

     “Your parents hiding something? You must be joking,” Fred replied. “Your parents never hide anything from you.”

     “Yes, well they are now,” I said. “They’ve been working a lot more lately, and I don’t think I’ve seen a Prophet all summer.”

     “So?” George asked. “Not like you read it.”

     “That’s not the point!” I replied angrily. “My parents always tell me everything, and they haven’t had a single conversation with me other than ‘how was your day?’ It’s frustrating!”

     “Stop overreacting, Id,” Fred said. “It’s probably nothing.”

     “Fine,” I huffed. “Don’t believe me. But don’t come crying to me when you need me to believe something important.”

I attempted to avoid the twins for the rest of the night, but of course when it was time to eat dinner, the only open seat available at the table was in between the two of them.

     “Can’t avoid us forever,” George said.

     “Sadly,” I replied.

     “You wound me,” Fred said while clutching his chest.

     “You’ll live,” I said.

     “…and Dora has some exciting news as well,” my mum said. ‘Uh oh,’ I thought. “Go ahead and tell them.”

     “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mum,” I replied. “Any news you have is news to me.”

     “Oh don’t be so modest,” she said. “Tell them how you made p-“

     “Perfectly good cookies,” I interrupted. “I wouldn’t say they were perfect; far from it actually. I mean, some of them got burnt and the rest were just awful. I guess now we know I can’t bake.”

     “I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about sweetheart,” Mum said confused. “I meant the fact that you made prefect.”

     “So that’s why you tried to convince us that prefects weren’t boring,” Fred said. Just great. This was the one thing that I wanted them to avoid finding out for as long as possible. And to think, my parents hadn’t taken notice of me at all over the summer and my mum chose this to tell them!? I would have much rather her have told them about Cedric than the whole prefect situation.

     “I’m more surprised that they picked you,” George said.

     “Oh shut up already,” I said, which just made the two of them laugh. “I’m seriously reconsidering our friendship.”

     “Oh, they’re just joking Dora,” Mum said. “You should feel very proud of yourself; I know I’m proud of you.”

     “Really?” I said. “Because you have a funny way of showing it.”

     “What is that supposed to mean?” Dad asked.

     “You know exactly what it means! You and Mum haven’t been around much recently, and now that you have some ‘good news’ to talk about which, mind you, you just found out this morning, you suddenly have an interest in my life!?”

     “Dora,” Mum said surprised.

     “You know it’s true! You spent all of your time at work! And when you weren’t at work, you spent all of your time avoiding me!” At this point I was just so angry with them. Sure, it’s wrong to start yelling at them in front of the Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, and whoever else was in the Leaky Cauldron, but I obviously wasn’t thinking. “So why don’t you just go back to work since you obviously care more about your jobs then your only child!” I just stared at the dumbfounded looks on everyone’s faces before getting up from the table and going upstairs to my room.

     I’ll be the first to admit that that was not the most mature way to deal with how I felt, but I was so caught up in the moment, and the fact that I had been holding those feelings in all summer didn’t help either.

     I walked over to my owls and opened their cages. Nyx immediately flew out and onto my shoulder as a sign to let her outside. So, I opened the window and watched her fly out.

     Athena, on the other hand, flew to my shoulder and stayed there, since she knew I needed the comfort at the moment.

     I sat down on the bed with Athena still perched on my shoulder, and just looked out the window while absent mindedly petting Athena.

     There was a knock on the door, but I made no attempt to open the door, or answer whoever was knocking. But there was no need, as whoever was knocking let themselves in.

     “Dora,” I heard Mum say. Athena, sensing the tension in the room, rubbed her head against my cheek, before flying out of the window to join Nyx. “Your father and I are so sorry for not being around this summer.” I turned around to see both my mum and dad standing in the doorway. “But you know how our jobs get sometimes; you have to realize this wasn’t easy for us.”

     “Actually Mum, I don’t,” I replied. “You have always been around over the summer, why is it any different now?”

     “Sweetheart, you have to understand-“

     “No, she’s right,” Dad interrupted. Mum looked at him surprised slightly before trying to say something, but Dad cut her off again. “Vi, she’s right; it is different this time. We haven’t been around much this summer because something happened that hasn’t before, so they needed as many of us as possible to help.”

     “What? The Minister got lost?” I asked sarcastically. A smile came across my dad’s face and he tried not to laugh, considering we all knew his distaste for the man.

     “No,” he said as the smile left his face. “Someone has escaped from Azkaban.”

     “But I thought it was impossible,” I said surprised.

     “So did we,” Dad replied. “Which is why we’ve been away so much; we’ve been trying to track the prisoner down and put him back into Azkaban.”

     “Why didn’t you just tell me that?” I asked.

     “We didn’t want to worry you,” Mum answered. “We were hoping it would be a quick job, and you wouldn’t have had to find out about it at all.”

     “But,” Dad added. “Since it wasn’t a quick job, and we haven’t caught him yet, you should know what we were doing, considering you would have found out soon anyway.”

     “What do you mean?”

     “The Ministry has decided to have Hogwarts guarded this year, just in case,” Mum answered.

     “So they’re sending Aurors to guard the castle?”

     “Not exactly,” Dad replied. “They’re sending the Azkaban guards to watch the castle.” Now I had heard about them before. Dad has told me before that they are some of the most foul and gruesome beings. “We just want to make sure you stay safe, and away from them because regardless of who they’re after, they will come after you if you get in their way.”

     “Promise us you’ll stay safe and out of trouble this year?” Mum asked.

     “I promise,” I replied. Then I went over to her and Dad and hugged them. No matter how irritating they can be sometimes, they’re still my parents and I love them.

     For some reason though, after they left me alone, I couldn’t help but feel like they still hadn’t told me everything. The look on my dad’s face as he was talking about the man that escaped from Azkaban seem odd; almost like he’d rather not even think about him.

     It wasn’t until the twins burst through my door holding Percy’s Head Boy badge that I broke out of my thoughts.

     “So, what are we doing with it?” I asked.

     “Oh, you know, just spiffing it up a bit,” Fred replied with a smirk.

     “I’ve got a few ideas.”

     “Brilliant,” George said. “Care to share?”

     So we ended up changing the words on his badge to switch between saying ‘Bighead Boy’ and ‘Humongous Bighead.’

     “By the way, Id,” Fred said. “You left this downstairs.” Then he held up my prefect badge, only instead of it saying ‘Prefect’ it said ‘Prankster.’ “We felt it was more fitting.”

     “You two are ridiculous,” I said as I laughed at the badge.

     “Well at least now you can be seen wearing it,” George replied.

     “Right you are Forge,” Fred added. “I think a ‘thank you’ is in order.”

     “Well I think an apology is in order as well,” I said.

     “Oh, and why is that?” George asked.

     “My mum and dad were hiding something from me,” I said. I heard a tapping sound on my window and got up to let Nyx and Athena back in before shutting the window and sitting back down.

     “What were they hiding then?” Fred asked.

     “Someone’s escaped from Azkaban,” I replied.

     “No one’s ever escaped Azkaban,” George said.

     “Yeah, well someone has, and my parents have been chasing him these last few weeks.”

     “Sure, Id,” Fred replied.

     “You don’t believe me now either,” I stated.

     “Not one bit,” George said.

     “Fine, but when we get to Hogwarts, and you, once again, find out I was right, you’re going to owe me so much.”

     “Yeah, sure,” Fred said while rolling his eyes. He may have thought I was lying, but by the time we get to Hogwarts, he’ll know I was right.

     We went to bed soon after that, figuring we’d need our rest so we could spend as much time on the train planning more pranks.

     That night after I fell asleep, I had an awful dream.

     I was standing in a dark room, and all I could see were these bright eyes staring at me. The eyes seemed oddly familiar somehow, but I couldn’t tell how.

     Then suddenly, whatever it was, came charging forward and just as it was about to attack me, I woke up gasping.

     I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes. I couldn’t get the image of those eyes out of my head; they scared me, but at the same time, I felt like I recognized them.

     All of a sudden, I felt a breeze, and looked over to see that my window had opened. I looked over to where my owls were, but only saw Athena, who was safely locked in her cage. Nyx, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen and her cage was opened.

     “Must have let herself out again,” I said to myself. Nyx always had a habit of getting out of her cage and flying off in the middle of the night, but she was never gone long.

     I got up out of bed, and walked over to the window to see if Nyx was anywhere in sight. Just as I was about to stick my head out of the window, Nyx flew right in, and landed on the ledge.

     “If you don’t stop doing that, I’m going to start putting a lock on your cage,” I sad to her. I held my arm out and she perched herself there before I shut the window and locked it. It was then that I noticed that she was carrying a small note. “What have you got there?”

     I grabbed the note from Nyx, and she then flew up to my shoulder, and stared at the small piece of parchment in my hand as if she was going to read the note as well.

 

_‘Don’t believe everything you hear.’_

 

     That’s what was written on that small bit of parchment. I was confused and scared all at the same time; confused because I didn’t know what this was about, and scared because I had no idea who sent this, and how they knew how to get it to me, especially with my owl.

     Since it was still too early in the morning for even my parents to be awake, I decided to try to go back to sleep, and would show them the note in the morning.

     So, in the morning after getting all of my things down the stairs, and double checking to see if Nyx and Athena’s cages were shut tightly, I went over to my parents

who were in the middle of a conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

     “Mum, Dad,” I said effectively getting their attention. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley seemed to realize that I needed to speak to my parents alone, so they excused themselves to go check to see if their kids were ready to go.

     “What’s wrong sweetheart?” Mum asked.

     “Well, I woke up in the middle of the night,” I answered. “And I saw that my window was open, and Nyx was gone. I really didn’t think anything of it at first because she has gotten out before, but I got worried when she brought me this.”

     I handed the note over to Mum, who took one look at it before handing it over to Dad with a concerned look on her face. This was the first time I ever saw my dad get so worried over anything.

     “Dora, are you sure you have absolutely no idea who gave this to you?” he asked.

     “Well at first I thought it could’ve been Fred or George, but this isn’t their handwriting, and they wouldn’t do that,” I answered.

     “You’re sure?” he asked.

     “Yes,” I said. Dad gave Mum and very concerned look before helping me get my things outside since the Ministry cars were there to take us to King’s Cross.

     As we headed outside, Dad seemed to be on high alert; he kept looking all around as if he was expecting someone to jump out and attack us. But all of a sudden he froze, causing Mum to stop walking as well.

     “Dad?” I asked.

     “Dora, get in the car,” he said.

     “Why? What’s going on?” I was really confused. Did he see something?

     “Do as your father says,” Mum said. They were really worrying me now, but I did what they said and got in the car, before watching them walk over to Mr. Weasley, whisper something and walk into an alley way.

     I was ready to get out of the car, but Mr. Weasley came over and blocked the door.

     “Dora, you need to stay in the car,” he said.

     “Where are they going?” I asked.

     “They’re just going to check something out.”

     “Well are they coming back?” The look on Mr. Weasley’s face told me all I needed to know; whatever it was that they were “checking out” was going to cause them to go back to work.

     I nodded my head at him and slid all the way back into the car. Mr. Weasley gave me a sympathetic smile before moving away from the door and was soon replaced by Fred and George who slid in next to me.

     I spent the ride to King’s Cross in silence just trying to figure out what was going on. Fred and George seemed to notice that something was bothering me and probably decided to wait until we were on the train to ask me what was going on.

     After catching up with Lee, we found an empty compartment, and were soon joined by Katie, Angelina, and Alicia.

     “So are you going to tell us what’s bothering you now?” Fred asked. “Or are you just not going to speak to us at all today?”

     “How much do you know about that man that escaped from Azkaban?” I asked.

     “You mean Sirius Black?” Alicia asked. “Why would you want to know about him?”

     “My parents are Aurors at the Ministry,” I replied. “And they’re out looking for him.”

     “Well, all I know is what was reported in the Prophet,” she said.

     “What did he do?” I asked.

     “You don’t know?” Lee asked surprised. I shook my head to see his mouth drop open before he composed himself and explained. “He killed thirteen people twelve years ago with one curse.”

     “Why’d he do it?”

     “Dunno,” he answered. “But the Prophet was speculating that he was a huge follower of You-Know-Who.” I instantly became even more worried about what has happened. “Haven’t you been reading the Prophet lately?”

     “No,” I answered. “My parents wouldn’t even let me see the front page. Not like I read it anyway.”

     “You’d think that since your parents are Aurors, they’d tell you this stuff,” Katie said.

     “They told me last night,” I said. “They said they didn’t want me to worry.” Katie roller her eyes at that.

     All of a sudden there was a knock on the compartment door. And who was it you might ask? None other than the one person that would ruin the rest of my day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I didn't even realize I never actually posted this chapter. Sorry about that. However, I am working very hard on updating this story, and the fact that I am literally writing up a storm right now is helping. I'm currently in the process of editing the next chapter, as well as writing future chapters, so chapter 7 won't be up for a bit, but hopefully this one holds you all over for a while.


	7. Chapter 7

“Oh look George,” Fred said. “Percy’s finally decided to learn how to be fun.”

      “This can’t be!” George exclaimed. “Percy having fun?”

      “My thoughts exactly.”

      “If you’re quite done,” Percy interrupted. “I actually came for Dora.”

      “What do you need her for?” Fred asked. “Can’t you get your own friends?” Percy’s face got so red from anger that he looked like he was about to explode.

      “There’s a mandatory prefect meeting that she needs to be at,” Percy said angrily.

“I’ll be right there,” I said, trying to ease the tension in the compartment.

     “You’re a prefect?” Angelina asked.

     “Surprise?”

     “This is brilliant!” Lee exclaimed. “Now we definitely won’t get caught.”

     “Just remember Lee,” I said. “If you make one more stupid comment about me during a Quidditch match, I won’t hesitate to put you in detention with Snape.” The priceless look on his face was enough to cheer me up for a bit. “I guess I’ll see you in a bit then.”

     “Don’t forget this, Id,” Fred said while holding up my prefect’s badge.

     “You had it this whole time?!”

“Course,” he replied. “We had to make a few more adjustments.” Now instead of just reading ‘prankster’ like it had when they first modified it, it flashed back and forth between ‘prefect’ and ‘prankster.’ “Now you’re less likely to get in trouble.”

     “I’d probably get in the same amount of trouble,” I said while rolling my eyes. Knowing my luck, I definitely would get in trouble for this. Oh, the price I pay for being friends with those two.

     “It’s much more fitting now,” George added. I rolled my eyes again before leaving the compartment and heading down the train towards the prefects’ compartment.

     Once I got to the compartment, I slid the door open, and looked up to see everyone staring at me. Apparently, I was more late than I had thought.

     “Sorry,” I said, embarrassment clear on my face. Luckily I started to gain some control over my metamorphmagus ability, so I didn’t have to worry about being that embarrassed. However, the stronger the emotion was, the harder it was for me to control, so there still was always that issue.

     I sat down in the seat closest to the compartment door and waited silently for Percy to continue whatever he was saying before I interrupted. So, after receiving a very disapproving look from him, he finally continued on with the meeting.

     “Why is it that I’m not surprised you’re late?” asked a whispered voice from next to me.

     “Why is it that I’m not surprised you’re a prefect?” I asked in response.

     “Probably for the same reason that I’m not surprised you’re a prefect, too.”

     “Dora,” Percy said, interrupting my conversation. “You’re also on first patrol.”

     “Okay,” I replied. Percy then continued to dish out everyone’s appointed patrols.

     “I’m on first patrol, too.”

     “Why am I not surprised by that either?”

     “Maybe it’s because I wanted to spend more time with my girlfriend.”

     “Ced, you didn’t,” I replied with a slight groan.

     “No, I didn’t,” he said. “However, I may have implied that I wanted to patrol with you.” I smacked him lightly on the arm with a slight smile on my face. Cedric just smiled at me before taking my hand, squeezing it lightly, and letting go before getting up. “Come on,” he said. “We have to do our rounds.” I got up and followed him out of the compartment, and noticed that the other prefects were leaving as well. ‘I really should start paying more attention at things like this,’ I thought.

     As we made our way down the train, I remembered that I had not yet changed into my robes yet.

     “Do you mind if we stop by my compartment real quick? I need to change into my robes.”

     “Of course,” he said. “I don’t think anyone would take you seriously dressed like that anyway.”

     “No one takes me seriously anyway,” I replied with a laugh.

     “That’s not true.” I looked up and saw Cedric had a slight frown on his face. “Stop thinking so low of yourself, alright?”

     “If I do, will you stop giving me the ‘sad face’?” I asked. He nodded. “Alright I’ll stop.”

     “Good,” he said with a smile before taking my hand and walking with me to my compartment.

“You do know I was joking though, right?” It took him a moment to realize that I was actually joking about people not taking me seriously before shaking his head and continuing with our walk.

Once we neared the compartment, I released his hand and asked him to wait outside. Not only did my friends not know I was dating him, but Fred and George didn’t seem particularly fond of him. I was definitely planning on holding out on telling them about this for as long as humanly possible.

“Finally!” Fred exclaimed dramatically as I walked into the compartment. “What took you so long?”

“Yeah,” George added. “We thought Percy might have tried to brainwash you into being a ‘proper member of society.’” I just rolled my eyes at that.

“Well, technically I can’t stay,” I said ignoring their groans of protest. “Percy put me on first patrol.”

“Oh come on, Id,” Fred said as I searched through my trunk for my robes. “It’s not like anything serious happens on the train anyway.”

“That’s not the point Fred,” I replied while pulling my robes out of my trunk. “I don’t have a choice; it’s part of my duty as a prefect. Besides, I have a feeling that Percy will be making sure that I’m actually doing what I’m supposed to be doing and not skiving off to be with you lot. Anyway, having first patrol means that it’s out of the way, and the rest of the train ride can be spent in here.” That answer seemed to satisfy them for the time being, that is, until they decided to ask the one question I really did not want to answer at the time.

“So, who are you stuck doing rounds with?” Lee asked. I knew they were going to hate the answer to this.

“It’s not Towler is it?” Fred asked.

“Could you imagine?” George asked. “Id doing rounds with Towler?”

“I’d feel bad for Towler,” Fred replied. “No one deserves that punishment; not even him.”

“Could be worse,” I replied. “I could be stuck doing rounds with you. Could you imagine?” Fred looked absolutely horrified at the thought of being a prefect. It was quite comical actually. “And if you must know, it isn’t Towler, thank Merlin.”

“Please tell me it’s not Percy,” George begged while scrunching his face.

“On second thought,” Fred added. “If it is, don’t tell us.”

“It’s not Percy either. Seriously, why do you guys care so much anyway?”

“Just curious,” Fred and George chorused. I rolled my eyes at them. I was glad when they finally stopped asking, because maybe they wouldn’t ask when I got back either. However, just after that thought, Cedric decided to have utterly horrible timing and ruin the somewhat good day I was having.

“Are you almost ready, Dora?” he asked.

“Oh, bloody hell,” Fred muttered under his breath.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” I said to Cedric while trying to ignore the look Fred was giving him. Cedric, noticing the obvious tension in the compartment, decided to take my advice and wait for me at another area of the train. So, he smiled slightly at me, and walked away.

“Really Id?!” Fred exclaimed once Cedric was gone. “You’ve got patrol with pretty-boy Diggory?!”

“Not now Fred,” I replied, clearly not in the mood for an argument. I was hoping to have a pleasant train ride for once. “We’ll talk later.” Fred didn’t seem too happy with my response, but agreed regardless, considering it was the only way I’d continue discussing anything with him for the rest of the train ride.

After hurrying to the bathroom, and quickly changing into my robes, I caught up with Cedric near the compartment where the meeting held place, so we could finally start our rounds.

“What was all that about back there?” Cedric asked. I sighed. Now I knew I wasn’t going to have a peaceful train ride. Was it really necessary for this conversation to take place right now?

“I told you how Fred and George get sometimes,” I answered vaguely. I was hoping he’d take the hint and not continue this conversation, however I clearly was not going to get my way.

“They don’t like me much, do they?”

“It’s not that, it’s just-“ Cedric cut me off with a pointed look that clearly said he knew I was trying to spare his feelings. “No, not at all.” Cedric sighed.

“You do know we’ll have to tell them eventually,” he said.

“I know,” I said with a sigh. “Or, we could not and say we did.” Cedric just gave me a look. Okay, clearly he was not in the mood to joke around with this right now. I knew we really would have to tell them eventually, and when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘I’, but now was not the time for that, and I really just wanted to at least somewhat enjoy the rest of the train ride.

As expected, Cedric and I finished our rounds without any problems. There really isn’t anything that happens on the train that’s worth having prefects patrol for. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why we have to do this.

“So, I’ll see you later then?” Cedric asked as we neared my compartment.

“Course,” I replied with a smile. He quickly looked around before pecking me on the lips and making his way back towards his compartment.

Cedric and I were perfectly content with people not knowing we were dating. We both were pretty private people, so it really was mostly because we didn’t want people intruding in on our personal lives. The other major reason though was that my friends, mainly Fred and George, for reasons unknown, were not on the best of terms with him. I just feel as though they really don’t even have a reason not to like him; they just don’t.

Once I got closer to my compartment, I could hear arguing going on inside.

“What does she see in him anyway?” I heard Fred ask.

“Do yourself a favor, and don’t start this again,” George warned.

“I’m not starting anything,” Fred argued. “I just want to know what she sees in that pretty-boy.” He’s still going on about this? Hopefully by the time I actually decide to go into the compartment he won’t bring this up.

“Do you want a repeat of third year?” Katie asked.

“No, but-”

“Then leave it alone.” Thank Merlin for Katie. I’m sure if she hadn’t gotten him to shut up about it, there was no way I was going to finish this train ride without an argument. So, before he could start that up again, I decided to take the momentary silence as my cue to walk in. “Hey Dora. How was your patrol?” I had a feeling Katie knew I heard some of the argument that was going on in my absence, and I was grateful that she decided not to mention anything.

“Pretty boring actually,” I replied. “I mean, honestly, did they really expect us to give anyone a detention?” I could have sworn I saw Fred smirk slightly at the mention of my patrol being boring, however, I decided to let that go. “I was so close to dropping some of those modified dungbombs into random compartments, too.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Fred asked. “Merlin knows it would have made your whole situation much better.”

“She was with Cedric you dolt,” Katie answered. I had a feeling Katie already knew about my relationship with Cedric, and I was glad she hadn’t said anything about it, especially considering the argument that had just gone on in the compartment. That being said, she was smart enough to not say anything after that anyway. “There was no way she’d be able to get away with that while another prefect was around.”

“Well actually, your stupid brother was following me around to make sure I was doing my job,” I said to Fred while rolling my eyes. “So, I wouldn’t have been able to do that even if I tried.”

“You still could have ditched pretty-boy Diggory,” Fred said. Oh great, here we go. “He probably wouldn’t have cared. And forget Percy; you could have thrown one of those dungbombs at him. Perfect target.”

“First off, no, I couldn’t have ditched him,” I said. “And second, stop calling him a ‘pretty boy’; he’s not a pretty boy.”

“Well, what do you want me to call him?”

“How about his name?” I replied.

“‘Pretty boy’ is much more fitting though,” Fred argued. “Don’t you agree?” I just glared at him. “What?”

“Look,” I said. “You’ve made your distaste for him very clear after we became friends. But do me a favor and stop. He hasn’t done anything to you, so he doesn’t deserve to be treated that way.” Just as I thought an argument was about to start, Fred prepared to say something else but was quickly stopped by George with a swift kick in the leg.

“Fine,” Fred said.

“So,” I said while taking my usual seat between Fred and George. “What sort of mayhem shall we cause this year?” This instantly pulled Fred out of his mood, and put the trademark Weasley twin smirk back on his face.

“That’s more like it,” George said.

“We could do something with those modified dungbombs,” Lee suggested.

“They’re still in the testing phase though,” I said.

“So?” Fred asked. “We need test subjects. Who better to test those on then unsuspecting students and Filch?”

“I’m in,” George said immediately.

“Me too,” Lee added.

“Alright,” I sighed. “But if something bad happens, I’m blaming you lot.”

“Fair enough.”

All of a sudden, the train seemed to be slowing down. It was raining hard outside and was way too dark to even consider looking out the window to see what was going on.

“We can’t be there already,” Alicia said.

“Then why are we stopping?” Angelina asked.

“Maybe something fell on the tracks,” Lee suggested. Even though it was too dark to see, I got up from my seat anyway, and tried to look out the window.

“I can’t see anything,” I said even though I knew my attempt to look was useless.

Without warning, the train came to a halting stop, causing everyone in the compartment to fall over, followed by the lights flickering out. The fall was probably worst for me considering I was the only one standing.

“You’re welcome for breaking your fall,” Fred said with a groan.

“Sorry,” I replied. I was wondering who I had landed on.

This was rather strange; first the train stops much too early for us to be at Hogsmeade station, and then all of the lights went out. All I could say was that this had never happened before, and I hoped it would never happen again.

I sat up, and immediately realized that I had knocked both Fred and I onto the floor. I then found my wand, conjured up a jar, and cast the spell to conjure bluebell flames into the jar before closing the lid and placing the jar on the floor in the middle of all of us.

“Great,” George said. “Now that we can see-” George stopped when it suddenly got very cold. Then, a dark figure approached our compartment door. “On second thought, I don’t want to see.”

“What is that?” Alicia whispered, fear evident in her voice. I knew why she’d be scared; the Azkaban guards are not to be taken lightly.

“Dementor,” I whispered back. I started shivering as the compartment seemed to get colder and colder the closer the Dementor got to our compartment. Just as it reached its hand out to open the door, there was a flash of silvery light, and the Dementor glided off.

I stopped shivering as the cold seemed to leave with the Dementor, and I immediately started to feel a bit better.

“Well, I, for one, am glad that thing is gone,” Fred said.

“Shut up Fred,” I replied.

“What?”

“Just shut up.”

“I just hope we get to Hogwarts soon,” Angelina said.

“Yeah, I don’t think I can take anymore surprises,” Alicia agreed. The lights then flickered back on, and soon after, the train began to move again. However, the rain refused to let up at all, so we were stuck not knowing how close we were to arriving.

“Thank Merlin we’re moving again,” Katie said. “No offense, but I can only tolerate being stuck in here with you lot for so long.”

“None taken,” George replied.

“In fact, we take that as a compliment,” Fred added.

“Of course you do,” I said while rolling my eyes.

The rest of the train ride was spent talking about random things such as Quidditch, and who we thought our new DADA professor would be.

“I don’t care who it is,” I said. “As long as it’s not another Lockhart.”

“What’s this?” Fred questioned jokingly. “You mean to tell me that you weren’t fawning over your idol?”

“Oh bugger off, Fred,” I answered. “We all know Lockhart’s a fraud.”

“Well now we all do,” George added with a smirk at Angelina and Alicia. They just glared at him while he continued to smirk.

“With any luck, we might actually get someone who knows what they’re doing,” Katie said, disregarding George completely.

“Yeah, well, with what’s happened so far this year, I doubt that we’d have any luck at all,” Lee said.

“It would be nice to actually have a professor who wasn’t a complete and total nutter,” I said.

“But having a complete and total nutter for a professor would keep the class interesting,” Fred replied.

“Well, I think we deserve something normal this year,” I said. “Especially after everything that’s happened so far.”

“Yeah,” Alicia agreed. “But do you really think we’re going to get something normal?”

“Doubt it,” Fred and George chorused.

“Your pessimism aside,” I said. “I have a feeling we might actually catch a break this year and have a competent professor.”

“And what makes you so sure?” Fred asked.

“I’m not,” I answered. “But someone has to be optimistic around here. All this negativity is bothering me.”

When we finally arrived at Hogsmeade station, the seven of us quickly got off of the train and made our way over to the carriages as fast as we possibly could through the freezing cold rain.

We quickly climbed into the carriage and filled the short ride to the castle with idle conversation that mainly centered on what we thought our new DADA professor was going to be like. I paid no attention, however, as my mind was otherwise occupied with what happened before we got here. What was it that my dad saw that frightened him so much that he and mum ran off without an explanation? Did it have something to do with that not I got? All I knew was that whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.

I started to feel more at ease once we were inside, most likely because we were away form the Dementors, but also for some other reason that I couldn’t put my finger on. Maybe it was because I was back at school and with my friends again. Regardless, something was lifting my spirits, and as weary as I was about it, I couldn’t help but embrace the feeling.

After the sorting, Dumbledore began his usual speech, this time thought, he mentioned something my parents had already told me; the Dementors were going to be guarding Hogwarts this year. The uneasiness returned, and by this time, I was ready for this day to be over already.

I started to space out again, but was quickly brought back to reality when I felt a nudge on my arm. I looked up and saw Fred looking at me curiously.

“Did you hear what Dumbledore just said?” he asked. I shook my head in response causing him to roll his eyes and smirk at me before saying that we were getting two new professors this year. I perked up a bit at the news thinking we might actually have a shot at learning something useful for once.

“First,” Dumbledore said. “Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

I couldn’t believe it. I must have drifted off again because there was no way I had heard that right. But when I looked up at the staff table, there was no denying that what I had heard was in fact true, because Remus Lupin was sitting up there.

“Think we might actually learn something from him Id?” Fred asked.

“Definitely,” I replied. Fred gave me a questioning look before turning his attention back to Dumbledore who had just announced that Hagrid would be our new Care of Magical Creatures teacher.

“That class is going to be wicked,” George said.

“Yeah,” Fred agreed. “With Hagrid teaching, we’ll end up in the Forbidden Forest during every lesson.”

“You two go into the Forbidden Forest on a daily basis,” I pointed out. “I doubt there’ll be much of a difference if Hagrid’s teaching.”

“You mean other than the fact that we’ll be dealing with more dangerous creatures, right?”

“Shut up Fred,” I replied.

“You’re only saying that because you know I’m right.”

“No, I’m saying that because you’re annoying me.”

“You wound me,” he said while placing a hand over his heart. I just rolled my eyes at his antics. Soon after, Dumbledore ended his speech, and we started piling food on our plates once the feast began.

“What do you think about our new DADA professor?” Lee asked. “Think he’ll be any good?”

“Id sure thinks so,” Fred answered with a smirk. “But that’s probably because she fancies him.”

“Do not!” I protested while wrinkling my nose in disgust. “He’s like, the same age as my parents.” Of course I knew this for a fact, but I doubted it would have been a good idea to tell them he was my godfather just yet.

“Then what makes you so sure he’ll be a good teacher?” George teased.

“Put it this way, I doubt he’ll be worse than Lockhart.”

“I dunno,” Fred disagreed. “You never know these days.”

“And you do?”

“I know everything,” he answered.

“Sure you do Fred,” I said sarcastically. “And I’m an eighty-five year-old man from Belgium.”

“You are?!” Fred said in mock surprise. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Oh shut up,” I replied. Fred just grinned at me in response.

All too soon, the feast was over, which meant it was time for me to help the first years. Luckily, Fred and George didn’t stick around to harass me, and instead decided to just head straight to bed. Rather than help the first years right away though, I went over to the staff table to greet the new DADA professor.

“Hi Uncle Moony,” I said causing him to turn around. “Or do I have to call you ‘Professor Lupin’ now?”

“Only during class,” he answered with a smile causing me to smile in return. Then I hugged him. It felt nice to see him after so long.

“What are you doing here?” I asked excitedly.

“Dumbledore offered me the job, so I took it,” he answered. Something was off though; it felt as if he was leaving something out.

“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked accusingly. “Did mum and dad ask you to spy on me?” He sighed. “I knew it. There was no way something this good would happen without a catch.” Then I started to stomp off.

“Dora wait,” he said while trying to catch up to me. I huffed in annoyance. “There are things going on right now that you don’t understand quite yet.”

“Like what?” I asked annoyed. “That there’s a mass murderer on the loose that for some reason wants to come to Hogwarts?! Or is it that mum and dad don’t trust me to know what’s going on?!”

“Dora, please calm down,” he said.

“Why?!”

“Because you’re causing a scene and drawing unwanted attention to yourself,” he answered.

“Fine,” I huffed.

“Let’s talk about this tomorrow,” he said. “Because it looks like you have prefect duties to get to.” I groaned.

“They told you?” I whined.

“Of course they did,” he replied with a laugh. “I was a prefect too, you know.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “And dad also told me that he called you a nerd because of it.” His face immediately lost its smile, and I grinned before walking off to join Towler, who looked extremely angry for making him wait to bring the first years up to the common room.

“What’s got your wand in a knot?” I asked.

“Took you long enough,” he replied angrily. “You do understand we actually have responsibilities now, right?”

“Course I do,” I replied. “I’m not stupid.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” he muttered causing me to glare at him.

“Alright everyone,” I said directing my attention to the group of first years. “Let’s get going.” Towler and I started leading the first years out of the Great Hall and to the staircases where I explained how they tended to change a lot. I also told them not to worry since all they needed to do was ask an older student, for guidance. They were more than likely willing to help them out.

By the time we reached the common room, I was tired and ready for bed. Towler and I explained where the dormitories were before sending all of the first years off to bed. I went over to one of the squishy armchairs in front of the fireplace and sat down instead of going upstairs, waiting for Fred and George to pop out of nowhere and ruin the rest of this miserable day.

“Looks like you had a fun time,” Fred said as he sat in the chair next to me.

“Don’t even start,” I said completely exhausted.

“What? Didn’t have a good time with Towler?”

“Shut up Fred,” I said for the umpteenth time that night. He just grinned at me before the three of us said good night and went to bed.


	8. Chapter 8

The first day of classes was spent just like any other. Fred, George, and I spent the day discussing new ideas for inventions for pranks. When we weren't doing that, the twins took it upon themselves to continually bug me about my horrid time showing the first years around with Towler the night before.

"Shut up already," I said as we were leaving DADA. As I thought, it was a really good class. "It's not funny anymore. It wasn't even funny to begin with."

"Ah, Id, that's where you're wrong," George said.

"It'll always be funny," Fred finished. I just rolled my eyes at them.

"Lighten up, Id," George said.

"Yeah, let's go," Fred said. "I'm starving."

"You're always starving," I said. "You guys go ahead; I'll catch up with you."

"Ha! Knew it!" Fred said with a smirk. Then he and George ran out of the room. 'I hate them so much sometimes,' I thought.

"What are you still doing here?" Uncle Moony asked. "I thought you would have gone to dinner with your friends?"

"It's tomorrow," I answered. "And you promised we'd talk." His face dropped all of a sudden, as if what I had just said was the furthest from what he wanted to hear.

"Dora, now is not a good time," he said.

"Why not?" I asked. "You promised you would tell me what's going on." He sighed.

"I know I promised, but we'll talk about it another time." Was he just trying to avoid this conversation altogether?

"I just want to know why mum and dad want you to spy on me. Do they really not trust me?"

"It's not a matter of them not trusting you."

"Then what is it a matter of?" At this point, I was starting to get really frustrated. Now I knew he was trying to avoid having this conversation with me. Is it really all that awful for me to know the truth? "Come on, Uncle Moony, I know you weren't this uptight when you were in school. Otherwise, there's no way you would have been a Marauder." He flinched at the mention of the Marauder title. Was there suddenly something wrong with being associated with them?

"Dora, why don't you go down to dinner?" he asked, attempting to pull focus away from the current situation. "If you don't go now, you'll miss it." The fact that he really wants me to leave now, knowing that I am aware of the fact that I can always go to the kitchens to get food, definitely means he's hiding something.

"Alright," I answered, semi-suspicious of his reasoning. "I'll see you later then." He gave me a weak smile, and with that, I left the room and began to make my way down to the Great Hall.

The further and further I got away from his classroom, the more frustrated and curious I began to get, as I still had absolutely no idea what was going on. On top of all of that, I was even more confused by the entire situation since Uncle Moony didn't seem all too nostalgic at the mention of his days at Hogwarts. Dad always told me how much fun they used to have "in the good old days," so why is now different? Did something that bad happen to make him want to forget? All I knew was that by the time I got to the Great Hall, I had a huge headache from all of this thinking, and I was in need of a good distraction.

"Finally decided to join us then," George said as I sat in my usual seat between him and Fred.

"I was hungry," I answered, hoping neither of them would further want to discuss why I didn't leave with the pair of them.

"Did something happen with your 'conversation' with our new professor?" Fred asked with a mischievous grin. I hated when he did this. Something bad usually followed, and I was definitely not in the mood for this. I needed a distraction, not a bigger headache.

"No Fred," I said. "And don't start with this again."

"Start with what?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"You know what I mean."

"I don't," George added. "Whatever could this conversation be about?" 'Oh wonderful,' I thought. 'Now they're both doing it.'

"Whatever it is the two of you are thinking right now, stop thinking it," I said. "Nothing's happened."

"Sorry Id," George said.

"Yeah," Fred added. "We're sorry nothing's happening between you and Professor Lupin." Then he smirked at me. Not only was he wrong, but also that comment was extremely disturbing.

"First of all," I said. "That's absolutely disgusting." The thought of that even remotely being a possibility made me sick to my stomach." Second of all, I'm angry that no one seems to want to be honest with me, regardless of what the question is."

"What exactly does that have to do with our new professor?"

"Just forget it," I said frustrated. "I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Alright then," George said. Fred, however, gave me a concerned look before changing the subject to that of the latest prank idea, which included the fifth year Slytherins, a babbling beverage, and a simple switching spell. We had a lot of work to do for this one, and when I say 'we' I mean 'me.'

Weeks went by without much of a thought, and still I wasn't getting any closer to finding out anything from Uncle Moony. Rather than even having a simple conversation with me, he's resorted to getting very evasive when it came to anything I said to him. At least in the beginning he was talking to me, but the more I asked, the less he said. Unless I started the conversation off with something relevant to that day's lesson, I could barely get a word out of him. Clearly he was doing all he could to prevent me from finding out whatever it was that he and my parents were trying desperately to hide. But any thought I had on the matter was soon cut off by the sound of Fred and George's laughter as they walked into the common room.

"Where were you two?" I asked as they sat on either side of me, still laughing slightly.

"Oh, you know, just having a bit of good fun," Fred replied with a smirk.

"Mhm," I replied. "So neither of you would happen to know what happened to my supply of garroting gas that we were planning on experimenting with, do you?"

"Course not Id," George answered quickly. However, knowing the pair of them for as long as I had, it made it nearly impossible for them to get away with lying to me.

"So neither of you nicked it from my bag earlier?"

"No," they chorused, further attempting to get away with the lie. I just stared them down knowing all too well that it was only a matter of time before they cracked. They really weren't all that good at lying.

"Alright," Fred groaned. "We took it. Happy now?"

"No, I'm not happy," I replied with a glare. "That was all I had left, and we were supposed to use it for new inventions."

"Sorry Id," George said while dropping his head in shame.

"Yeah sorry," Fred added. "But you should have seen what we used it for." His mischievous smirk returned, and then he proceeded to tell me all about how he, George, and Lee inconspicuously dropped the open container into Montague's bag as he walked into the Slytherin common room.

"You could hear them all hit the ground through the wall," George said with a laugh.

"Best prank to date!" Fred said laughing. I couldn't help but laugh along with them as the picture of a bunch of Slytherins being knocked out and falling to the ground entered my mind.

"Where were you anyway?" George asked after the laughter had ended.

"We know you weren't here the whole time," Fred added. Then he got the weirdest look on his face, almost as if he had figured out the secret to life, but was still somewhat confused at the same time. Then the grin returned. "You were talking to Professor Lupin again, weren't you?" Fred then proceeded to give me an amused, yet accusing glare.

"Oh bugger off," I answered. Technically he was wrong since Uncle Moony wouldn't say anything to me, but he didn't need to know that.

"Seriously," Fred said. "What is with you and Professor Lupin anyway?"

"Nothing," I said. "Why are you so obsessed with it?"

"Me?! Obsessed?!" Fred replied. "I'm not the one begging for his attention."

"I'm not begging for his attention," I said angrily. Technically I was begging for him to actually tell me what was going on, but he didn't need to know that either. "Why do you care anyway?"

"I don't," he answered quickly. Clearly he did, but I was done with this conversation before it even started so I didn't say anything.

"Right," George said. "Well, on a side note, the Hogsmeade trip is tomorrow."

"Thank Merlin," Fred said. "We need to stock up on supplies."

"I can't believe you've used up everything already," I said.

"Well, uh, we might have used up all of yours too," Fred said sheepishly.

"Fred!" I yelled.

"Night," the twins chorused before running upstairs to bed. This wasn't over.

The next morning, the twins and I made our way down to the Great Hall or breakfast and quickly ate before heading to the Entrance Hall so we could leave for Hogsmeade.

"I still haven't forgiven you," I said.

"Thought you might say that," George said.

"You did say you were going to help us with the pranks thought," Fred added. Then I smacked him on the arm.

"I said I'd help, not that you could take my things," I said.

"That hurts you know," Fred said while rubbing his arm.

"That's the point," I said. "Anyway, we better get going. Loads to buy." Then I grinned at them before we left for Hogsmeade.

We went to Zonko's first where I replaced everything that Fred and George 'borrowed.' I also grabbed a few extra things just in case they decided to take my stuff again, and also maybe to set traps to prevent them from further attempts.

Once we left Zonko's, we decided to go to Honeyduke's to get some sweets. After grabbing as much as we could carry, we left, and as we were on our way to the Three Broomsticks, we ran into Cedric who was on his way out with some of his friends. The tension was immediately noticeable.

"Oh hey Dora," Cedric said after telling his friends he'd catch up with them. "How are you?"

"Good," I answered. Not like he didn't already know that considering I had just seen him the day before. "You?"

"Fine," he said, finally feeling the tension set in. "You all heading to the Three Broomsticks?"

"Yep," Fred answered sharply. The fact that he was annoyed the minute Cedric came close to us was made very clear already, and his rude tone was neither necessary nor wanted. All I could think at that moment was, 'please don't start.'

"Well, it's um, pretty packed in there, so you might want to head in soon if you wanted to get a table," Cedric said uncomfortably.

Clearly, I could tell that was Cedric's way of not only trying to get me alone for a second so we could talk, but also to try and get on the twins' good side. However, it wasn't so much as both of their good sides as it was just Fred's.

"We'll be sure to do that," Fred said, his anger and annoyance prominent in every word, as he tried ushering me through the front door.

"Alright," Cedric said. "Well, I'll see you on patrol then."

"Oh, yeah, alright," I said uncomfortably, while still being dragged along by Fred. "See you later." I sent an apologetic look towards Cedric, who replied with a sad smile, before walking off to meet up with his friends.

Once we got inside, I angrily pulled myself away from Fred.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?!" I yelled.

"Me?!" Fred answered. "Nothing! Why are you patrolling with a git like him anyway?!"

"He's not a git, Fred. And I don't get to choose who I go on patrols with anyway." Fred seemed more annoyed after my answer than he had been before.

"Fred, c'mon mate, don't start with this," George pleaded.

"No, no, Fred, please do," I said narrowing my eyes at him. "Please tell me why it is you have such a problem with Cedric." By this point, we were already seated at a table and waiting to order. Thankfully, Cedric was right about how busy it was in there; otherwise the entire situation would have been embarrassing regardless of how angry we both were.

"He's clearly not interested in just being friends," Fred replied just as angrily. He was obviously right considering the fact that we weren't 'just friends,' but there was definitely not a chance that that information was going to be passed on to him anytime soon.

"Wow," I said sarcastically. "Great observation. Please, tell me more about how horrible it is for someone to have feelings for me." I clasped my hands together and set them on the table in front of me. "Well, go on then. Explain." Fred didn't seem as comfortable answering me this time, probably because he knew he really had no reason to hate Cedric to begin with. However, I knew he'd still attempt to come up with any reason at all considering just how stubborn he was when it came to any argument.

"He's using you," he said. Clearly, he was running out of any creative ideas, and just said whatever first came to mind.

"Now he's using me," I repeated with a laugh, effectively ending any other petty excuse for an argument he had lined up to use next. "What's your next argument then? He's actually obsessed with me, and every run-in we've had has been a carefully calculated move in a larger scheme to dose me with a love potion so I'd stay with him forever?" Fred was visibly baffled by my answer. He clearly was not expecting me to come up with anything to say to him, and instead was most likely expecting me to either sit there and fume, or come back with a poor excuse like he had. So, Fred just sat there in stunned silence for a moment before the anger returned, although it seemed as though he was having a rather hard time forming a response to my outrageous statement. From that observation, he either actually thought that that was something that Cedric would do, or he just couldn't come up with a good enough response. His silence however, was short-lived as he apparently came up with a good answer.

"No," was his genius response.

"Wow Fred, great answer," I said, voicing my thoughts. "You really outdid yourself with that one."

"Why do you like him so much anyway?" Fred asked angrily. Now he was deflecting. Did he really think that was going to work with me? "Is he really all that wonderful that you'd rather spend all your time with him?!"

"You're seriously angry at me for spending time with other people?! I'm allowed to spend my time with whoever I want. You don't own me, and you certainly aren't in charge of me." Now I was getting seriously angry. Who did he think he was anyway?! My keeper?!

"Course you can," he said. "Just not with him." That was the last straw. I had had enough of Fred's animosity to last a lifetime, and I certainly wasn't going to put up with his attitude any longer.

"Fine Fred," I said. "I'll put this in terms you can understand; Go to hell." I got up from the table and began to walk out.

"Where are you going?!" he yelled. I was beyond furious at this point, but rather than just ignore him and walk out, I figured he should understand exactly how infuriating he was actually being.

"Anywhere that you're not," I answered. Rather than look back at either of them, I just walked out, and as I was leaving, didn't even acknowledge the rest of my friends as they passed by. They would get filled in on Fred's latest act of stupidity soon enough anyway. However, I knew I wasn't going to be alone for long as at least one of them was bound to try and catch up with me. Soon enough, Katie was right there by my side trying hard to catch her breath from running after me.

"Slow down, will ya?" Katie said, breathing slightly heavier than normal. "You really do walk fast when you're angry." I slowed my pace but didn't say anything. "What'd he do this time? Steal all of your chocolate?" I knew she was just trying to cheer me up, but I was beyond the point of silly jokes to even acknowledge the fact that Katie was just trying to make me feel better.

"We ran into Cedric, who kindly reminded me of my patrol tonight," I explained. "Then Fred proceeded to tell me that I was not allowed to spend any time with him because Cedric's 'using me' and a bunch of other ridiculous things."

"He needs to learn to keep his bloody mouth shut," Katie said.

"Yeah, no kidding," I said as we began making our way back up to the castle.

"So I'm guessing you haven't actually told him yet then."

"Told him what?"

"Don't play dumb with me," she said. "You may be good at hiding your relationship with Cedric, but you're not that good." So Katie knew. I kind of figured she would have found out sooner or later.

"Regardless," I said. "I obviously haven't told him. Imagine how bad it would have been if I did."

"You know you're going to have to tell him eventually," she said after a moment. In fact, I did know, considering the amount of constant reminders I kept getting from Cedric. However, it was definitely not the time or place for that.

"If he keeps acting the way he did, then there's no need to tell him at all, is there?" I asked. Katie, knowing exactly what I meant by that, didn't even bother to answer since she knew I was right; there was only so much of his attitude that I was willing to tolerate.

After that, we spent the rest of the time in comfortable silence, as neither she nor I wanted to discuss that topic any further. Once back inside the castle, Katie and I headed straight to Gryffindor tower to put our things away, with me taking extra time to make sure my things were locked away and protected in case either Fred or George managed to steal anything again, Fred especially. How they managed to get into the girls dorm, I'll never know.

Katie came to get me before the feast started, refusing to acknowledge the fact that I was still angry and not bringing up our previous discussion. I was very thankful for that. However, I still told her to go on without me, figuring she'd clue in the others so they didn't bring it up either. It was better this way as I'd much rather spend this Halloween feast enjoying myself than wanting to hex Fred for being a self-centered jerk.

When there was literally nothing left to do to pass the time, and enough time had gone by for Katie to have explained what happened, I finally began making my way down to the feast. As much as I didn't want there to be any division between our friends, I knew that it would be almost impossible considering the fact that this was probably Fred and mine's worst fight to date. So, rather than spend the entire walk down mulling over my current predicament, I cleared my mind and attempted to think of nothing other than the many delicious foods that awaited me. Luckily, when I made it down to the Great Hall, I was able to sneak in behind a bunch of other students who were lagging behind a bit, so I didn't draw any attention to myself.

After the students dispersed, I immediately caught Cedric's eye, and he looked at me with concern. I responded with a weak smile and both of us looked away quickly before anyone could have acknowledged the small exchange. I then spotted Katie at the Gryffindor table and made my way over to her, Alicia, and Angelina, making sure to not even acknowledge the twins or Lee as I walked by them, even after seeing George wave at me out of the corner of my eye.

As expected, and eagerly hoped for, neither Angelina nor Alicia mentioned anything in regards to Fred or the Hogsmeade trip. Instead, they filled the gaps of silence with idle conversation about the feast, including the food and the various festivities that were taking place. As much as I tried to enjoy the feast, I couldn't even manage to get myself to care. I wasn't even angry at this point; I was just disconnected and disinterested. It was even hard for me to contribute to the conversations going on around me. It was as if the weight of the argument had finally hit me. I wasn't even upset about it; I didn't even know how I felt. The fact that this argument sort of hinted at the fact that one of my best friends would make me choose between our friendship and my relationship with Cedric was awful. But the worst part of it all was that I had no idea if either of those things were even worth it.

"Dora," Angelina said, snapping me out of my mental struggle. "You alright? You look like you've got a lot on your mind." I knew she was pretty much asking me if I wanted to talk about what happened and honestly, it didn't even matter anymore. I knew eventually Fred or I would give in, most likely Fred, and we'd just forget about the whole thing. However, this fight was much different than any of our other fights, and I wasn't sure if either of us were willing to forgive the other at this point.

"I…don't know," I said confused. And I honestly didn't know.

"You wanna talk about it?" Alicia asked. I shook my head, still slightly lost in thought and dazed by the entire day. "We're here if you ever change your mind."

"Thanks," I said, and I knew they were. It really was a waiting game at this point and hopefully things would go back to normal soon.

The feast ended soon after that short conversation to which I was grateful for. It wasn't that the topic bothered me anymore; it was more that I just didn't even want to think about it. At this point in time, it was just unwanted thoughts that I didn't want taking up space in my mind.

As we neared the entrance to Gryffindor tower, I noticed that there were lots of whispers and no one had gone in yet.

"What's going on?" I asked. "Why's everyone just standing around?" I pushed my way through; curiosity and impatience clear in my movements and halted at the sight before me.

The portrait, once containing the Fat Lady, was violently torn. Claw marks cut across the canvas, with bits of it strewn across the floor, and the Fat Lady was nowhere in sight. Percy, who had done what I had done in a more authoritative way, had finally made it up to the entrance, followed soon after by Professor Dumbledore. Who could have done this?

My question was quickly answered once Dumbledore had ordered Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Uncle Moony to search for the Fat Lady.

"You'll be lucky!" Peeves said as he hovered around everyone gathered by the portrait. Dumbledore curiously asked Peeves what he had meant by that to which Peeves responded by saying that Sirius Black had done it because the Fat Lady refused to let him in. That's when all of the students began to panic. Dumbledore, on the other hand, calmly had Percy and the rest of the Gryffindor prefects lead our house down to the Great Hall where we would be staying for the night.

Once the rest of the houses joined us, Dumbledore had all of the prefects meet with the Head Boy and Girl for patrol duties while the rest of the professors were to search the castle for any signs of Black. After Percy had ordered the students to go to bed, he had assigned the prefects their rounds, and of course, I was on first patrol with Cedric. Considering there was only so much we could do at this point in time, with everyone still hyped up from what had just happened, we decided not to take this patrol too seriously, and just use this time to keep everyone calm.

"You alright?" Cedric asked after trying to quiet down a couple of second year Ravenclaws. "Something seemed to be bothering you at dinner."

"I'm fine," I sighed. Even though he did have a right to be concerned, I still was tired of everyone asking me if I was okay.

"You sure?" I sighed again.

"Fred and I got into a fight again, that's all," I replied. It's not like this is unusual for the two of us, it just feels redundant.

"It was about me, wasn't it?" Cedric asked.

"Not everything's about you, you know?" I joked. He sighed. "Yeah, it was." I was hoping he wouldn't make me talk about it because I had literally had it with this topic to last a lifetime, but clearly Cedric did not share this idea. "Look, don't worry about it. Fred'll get over it soon enough."

"I just hate that this is ruining your friendship," he said.

"So, what? You want to end this just because Fred's being a jerk? Because I guarantee he'll find something else to argue with me over next week." And knowing him, that's exactly something he would do.

"Well, no," Cedric said. "I just don't want this to be something you'll regret later on."

"Look," I said. "Let's not talk about this now, alright? I've had enough of this for one day." Cedric nodded, but smiled knowing that I was just really not interested in any serious conversations right now.

Soon after that conversation, Cedric and I were finished with our rounds. We said goodnight to each other, and parted ways to search for a place on the floor to sleep, hopefully by our friends. I spotted Katie, who opted to stay awake until I was done. She managed to save me a place next to her in a less crowded area. After making myself comfortable, I talked to Katie for a bit before both of us became too tired to stay awake any longer, and fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

            The days following Sirius Black’s failed attempt to gain entrance into the Gryffindor common room continued on as normally as they possibly could, given the circumstances. The worst part about all of this was the fact that it was almost impossible for anyone in Gryffindor to gain access to our common room due the new portrait guarding the entrance. Sir Cadogen, a man dressed in a suit of armor, was apparently the only portrait that wanted to take the job. When trying to get into the common room, he either tried to fight you or had changed the password for the millionth time that day, causing all sorts of problems for us. No matter how hard we tried, no other portrait would guard the entrance, leaving us stuck with the bloody lunatic and his fat horse.

            Fred and I still weren’t speaking. As ridiculous as the fight between the two of us was, I refused to apologize because, as childish as it seems, he started it. Since he refused to apologize first (or at all for that matter) I refused to speak to him, which definitely put a huge strain on George. However, at this point in time, I had much bigger problems to worry about. Besides, I was spending most of my time with Katie now anyway, which worked out much better for me as she never argued with me over stupid things.

            Even through all of this nonsense, I was still having that same dream. These two eyes would appear in the darkness before a pair of hands would reach out to try and grab me. As scary as this dream was, there was something vaguely familiar about it, which scared and confused me even more to the point that I could no longer sleep through the night. I eventually just gave up on sleep altogether as I’d wake up in a panic. I began losing focus during the day. There would be moments where I’d just lose chunks of time. It was as if I were sleeping, but actually awake, unable to control my own body; I was on autopilot.

As a result of this, my grades began to suffer, and the professors started to take notice of this. I was also no longer able to control my metamorphmagus ability, which drew even more unwanted attention to me, and proved that I was no longer in control of what was going on in my life. All of this had gotten so bad that even though Uncle Moony was avoiding me like the plague, he kept me after class most days to try and figure out what was going on with me.

            “Dora,” he said, as I was trying to make my way out of the class. I had, once again, managed to doze off in his class (which happened to be the third time this week), leading him to request that I stay after class so he could speak to me. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even say what had been discussed during the lesson, or even remember agreeing to meet with him after class. This time, I was the one trying to avoid him. “Come back here. We need to talk.” I could see Katie waiting for me just outside of the classroom, but I motioned for her to go ahead without me, knowing full well that she would end up staying behind to wait. I then turned around, and stood just inside of the door.

            “What?” I asked disinterested. This was one of the last things that I wanted to do at that moment, not to mention the fact that I was completely exhausted. I also knew exactly what he was going to talk to me about and I had absolutely no intention of telling him, or anyone else for that matter, what was happening with me.

            “Will you please come all the way into the room and sit down?” I sighed and did as he asked, plopping myself down in a desk and dropping my bag on the floor. He sighed. “Now what’s going on with you? And please, don’t say ‘nothing.’ You’ve been falling asleep in class, your grades have declined tremendously, and that’s not just in my class; your other professors have been saying the same things. I had to send your parents a message through the Floo yesterday to let them know what’s going on.” I sighed again. All he was doing was telling me things that I already knew. Was he seriously trying this ‘concerned teacher’ act with me?

            “Nothing’s going on,” I answered, much to his displeasure. Immediately, he showed his disappointment with my response, but I honestly couldn’t care less.

            “Dora, please,” he sighed. “This is very important. You can tell me.” I just stared at him blankly, beginning to feel myself drift out again, causing him to sigh. I did all I could to remain focused, which took way more energy than I currently had. “Is this about your friends? The Weasley twins? I’ve noticed you haven’t been spending as much time with them as you normally do. Has something happened?” There was no way I was having this conversation with him. It bothered me that this was the one thing that he noticed was different above everything else. And of course something had happened, not that I was going to give him the satisfaction of giving him any information.

            “No,” I answered. “It has nothing to do with them, and there’s nothing going on.” I was half telling the truth considering what was going on really did have nothing to do with Fred being a massive git. But then I slipped up. “I just haven’t been sleeping.” In my attempts to keep myself from going on autopilot, I had let that information slip. So, rather than wait for him to question me further on my lack of sleep, I got up from the desk and picked up my bag. “I have to go, someone’s waiting for me.” Then I walked out of the room, as quickly as I possibly could, not even bothering to turn around when he called after me.

            As expected, Katie was still waiting for me outside of the classroom. She said nothing, and instead, walked alongside of me as we made our way down to the Great Hall.

            “What did he want?” she finally asked as we were about halfway there.

            “Nothing,” I said shortly.

            “Can’t be nothing,” she said. “He’s been trying to keep you after class all week.”

            “Look,” I sighed. “I just fell asleep in his class the other day. That’s all.” She seemed skeptical of my response, but didn’t ask me anything else, which I was grateful for. Katie always knew when to drop the subject. We just continued walking to the Great Hall in silence, Katie knowing full well that I would speak first if I wanted to talk about it.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************

            As the days went on, my focus had yet to return and I still had not had a full night’s rest. Funny enough, the only time I was really ever fully coherent was during Quidditch practice, however, even those started to blur together pretty quickly. Oliver began to act just as stressful as he always had leading up to a big match. This time, however, his stress levels went through the roof at the final practice before our first match.

            I only half paid attention, not really concerned with how the match would turn out. Oliver, however, was acting crazed and angry that Slytherin had somehow managed to weasel their way out of playing us first, leaving us to play Hufflepuff instead. I honestly was not all that surprised. It was with that announcement that I decided to excuse myself, as I no longer wanted any part of that conversation.

           As the day of our first match came, Oliver seemed to be the only one completely stressed out about the current weather predicament. I honestly could not have cared less about the weather, as my only concern was getting through the match without taking another Bludger to the head. Realistically, how many times could someone take that many hard blows to the skull before going completely brain dead?

           The rain was worse than I had originally thought as we got onto the pitch. We were immediately drenched from head to toe, and it was nearly impossible to see anything. We were up fifty points by the time Oliver had called a timeout, and before I knew it, it was over, and we were already back onto the pitch. It was then that I noticed something a bit odd. There, in the stands, sat a large, black dog, soaked from the rain. It just sat there watching, like it was completely normal for a dog to be actively watching a Quidditch match. The dog actually looked like it was paying attention to every detail of the match; which team was winning, which players were in which position. It was all very odd. I wondered how that dog even got up there without being seen, but was quickly brought out of my thoughts when the Quaffle came through the rain towards my face.

           As I began racing towards the hoops, I felt an overwhelming sense of dread fall over me, followed by an eerie chill, freezing me to the core. I looked around and saw around three, at least in my immediate line of sight, dementors surrounding me, all coming towards me from different directions. I tossed the Quaffle to Angelina, who didn’t even appear to notice the dementors, as I tried to make my escape. I zigzagged in between them in the hopes of getting away when a Bludger came flying at me through the thick sheets of rain. I did everything I could to avoid it. However, in the process of protecting my head, it managed to make contact with my arm, and with a sickening CRACK, I was thrown off of my current course, and directly into to the path of a waiting dementor.

           It was as if my nightmare was now my reality as I could see those eyes coming towards me once more. My last thought as I began falling was that at least I wasn’t too far from the ground. I landed hard, and even more dementors began to surround me. Knowing that both my leg and my arm were broken, I still tried to reach for my wand, but the intense pain prevented me from moving any further. As the dementors closed in on me, I began to lose consciousness, and just before the darkness took over, I saw Uncle Moony run out onto the pitch, and then those eyes from my nightmares came back full force.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************

            _The room was dark. I looked down and couldn’t even see my hands. I searched for my wand in the darkness in the hopes of bringing some light into this place so I could see, but it was no use; it was too dark to see anything. I put my arms out and began to walk forward, using my outstretched arms to guide my way through this place. As I walked, my eyes slowly began to adjust and I could just start to make out the outlines of various shapes. I stopped moving, focusing even harder on the shapes that surrounded me. This place looked familiar, but I couldn’t place how or where I knew this room._

_I took another look around the room and noticed that the shapes I was seeing were actually pieces of furniture. Was this my room? I continued to look around, but the furniture was nothing like it was when I left for Hogwarts; even the layout of the room was completely different. Somehow, though, the room felt familiar, like it was my room from another life. I stopped dead in my tracks when I heard a creak come from the other side of the door._

_I stared at the door, willing it to lock itself, but nothing happened. The knob slowly started to turn, and I began to back away slowly, finally realizing how small I was. Was this a memory? The door slowly opened, and a hand reached in, followed by those eyes appearing in front of me through the darkness; those eyes that had haunted me for weeks. As the door swung open completely─_

***************************************************************************************************************************************************

            I jolted awake with a gasp. I tried to sit up and felt a searing pain in my right leg, which forced me down on the bed. Looking around, I saw that I was in the hospital wing, and it was then that I remembered what had just happened: The Quidditch match; the dementors surrounding me; me falling from my broom; that horrible nightmare. Trying to ease myself up again, I let out a hiss from the pain, momentarily forgetting that I had also injured my arm. Apparently the sound was louder than I thought as some of my teammates had rushed towards me.

           “Merlin, Dora,” Angelina said as she and Katie gently pushed me back down on the bed. “Are you trying to break all of your limbs?” I relaxed back into the pillows and felt my arm and leg begin to throb from my movements.

           “Of course,” I replied. “Didn’t you know it was my goal in life to be in a full body cast?” Katie rolled her eyes while Angelina just shook her head. Alicia was there as well, and she just smirked at my response.

           “Well with your record of Quidditch injuries, you should reach that goal in no time,” Katie said. “Seriously, though, will you ever make it through a match without injuring yourself?” I sighed.

           “What even happened anyway?” I asked. “I remember the dementors showed up, but everything else is a blur. What were they doing out on the pitch?” I decided to leave out the nightmares and the dog, seeing as I really didn’t want them knowing about that anyway. The last thing I wanted them to think was that I had started going mad. They’d have me committed. In all honesty, it was odd that they hadn’t had me committed already considering some of the things that I’ve done and that have happened to me (and not just those that have happened recently).

           “I don’t know,” Angelina answered. “All I know is that they went after Harry too.”

           “What?!” I asked, surprised. “Is he alright?”

           “He’s actually in a lot better shape than you are, surprisingly,” Katie said. I rolled my eyes. “Dumbledore was furious though. Never seen him so mad before. He ran out onto the pitch when he saw them all over. Harry fell off his broom and Dumbledore had to clear out the dementors so he could slow him down before he hit the ground.”

           “What about me?” I asked. I realized how whiney that made me sound, but I wanted to know why I hit the ground full force.

           “We all lost sight of you after the dementors surrounded you,” Angelina said. “No one even realized you fell off your broom until you were already on the ground.”

           “Professor Lupin had run out there to get rid of them while Dumbledore took care of Harry,” Katie added. I nodded my head, slightly remembering seeing Uncle Moony out there. “Then he and Dumbledore brought you and Harry up here.”

           “The rest of the team is over with Harry,” Alicia said. “Well, everyone except Wood; he’s a little upset.” I guess that meant we lost, but I honestly didn’t even care at that point.

           “I don’t even want to know,” I said, voicing my thoughts. “So, what’s the damage this time?”

           “Well, well, Miss Hopkins,” Madam Pomfrey said as she walked over to me. As she approached, I could see the rest of the team leaving the hospital wing.          “Nice to finally see you awake. You gave us quite a scare.” With a sharp look at Katie, Angelina, and Alicia, the three got the hint and quickly said ‘goodbye’ before leaving me to rest.

           “How long is it going to be this time?” I asked with a sigh.

           “Let’s see,” she said. “You’ve broken your right leg which will heal quickly.” She then placed a few cups on the small tray in front of me. “As for your arm, that’s another story. I’m afraid that break will need to heal naturally.”

           “Brilliant,” I muttered. Then I drank the first potion that she had provided after she had explained that it helped to speed up the healing process in my leg. I didn’t get why it wouldn’t also work on my arm, but then again, I wasn’t a healer and decided it’d be best not to question her.

           “Professor Lupin has also voiced his concerns about you falling asleep in class. He said you told him you haven’t been sleeping.” Oh here we go. Yet another person that was going to question me on that issue. “Drink this,” she said, handing me the second cup. “Dreamless Sleep Potion. That should help you sleep through the night.” I was surprised, considering I expected another lecture. I was grateful though, as she seemed to realize that I didn’t want to discuss what was going on with me. Either that or she really didn’t care.

           “Thank you,” I said and gladly drank the potion. Madam Pomfrey then cleared the tray and it aside before leaving me to sleep in peace, with a promise to check in on me later.

           For the next week, I was forced to stay here, mostly due to the fact that I couldn’t get around on my own. The good thing out of all of this was the fact that I was finally sleeping, all thanks to the Dreamless Sleep Potion. Harry had only been held in the hospital wing for the weekend, and came by to see me before he left to ask how I was feeling. I joked that I had seen better days, and he gave me a small smile before Madam Pomfrey kicked him out.

           A few others came by to see me, including Cedric and all of my friends. Well, all of them except for Fred, who apparently refused to acknowledge the fact that I was in the hospital wing in the first place. At least that’s what Katie had told me, but she was probably joking.

           I was kind of surprised when George came by, mostly because he came alone. I couldn’t tell whether I was more upset or more angry at Fred for not going with him, and George seemed to notice this as he sat in the chair next to my bed.

           “Heard you’re getting out of here soon,” he said awkwardly. “Think you’ll be out of here in time to go to Hogsmeade?” Was that seriously what he wanted to talk about? I just raised my eyebrows at him and would have crossed my arms as well if it weren’t for the fact that my arm was still very much broken. He seemed to notice that I was having none of that and sighed. “Are you going to say anything?”

           “I don’t know, is there really anything _to_ say?” I replied.

           “You’re still angry then,” he said.

           “No, I’m indifferent.”

           “Sure you are,” he said with a laugh. “Look, if it makes you feel any better, I’ve been telling him since this whole thing started that he’s being an idiot.”

           “Well of course he’s being an idiot,” I scoffed. “This whole argument is idiotic. But you and I both know that I have nothing to apologize for.”

           “I’m not asking you to apologize. Merlin knows when Fred’ll get around to apologizing though. I tried to get him to come with me, but he said there’d be no point considering you were probably still ticked off at him.” Of course he would say that. Fred would do anything and everything to get out of admitting to me that he was wrong, no matter the situation. Even George rolled his eyes when he said that, knowing full well what his brother was up to.

           After talking a bit more, Madam Pomfrey soon came by and kicked him out, but not before George told me that even though Fred was being a git, neither one of them failed to notice something else was up with me.

           “Just something to think about,” he said, and I did, all the way through the rest of the day, and up until the Dreamless Sleep Potion took over as I fell asleep that night.

           A few days after George’s visit, I was finally released from the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey had said that my leg had finally healed completely, and therefore, I was able to get around on my own. My arm was still broken though, pretty badly I might add, but that would take a bit more time to heal.

           As the end of the term quickly approached, another Hogsmeade visit was coming up. Cedric had asked me to go with him, but seeing as how Fred and I still weren’t speaking, it would not have gone over well to be seen together. I was not about to tell Cedric that, so instead, I told him I’d already promised to go with Katie, but that I’d meet up with him when I could. He didn’t seem too satisfied with my response, but didn’t press the subject any further.

           On the morning of the final Hogsmeade visit before Christmas break, I met Katie, Angelina, and Alicia in the Entrance Hall before heading down to the village. As we made our way through the harsh blizzard-like weather, we went by Lee and the twins as they were leaving Zonko’s. George waved overenthusiastically at me, and I laughed quietly at his antics. Fred, on the other hand, looked at me sadly after noticing where George was waving, before quickly looking away. Lee was oblivious to the whole exchange, and kept prattling on about whatever conversation they were having before that awkward exchange took place.

           The four of us made our way to Honeyduke’s to fill up on sweets. Luckily, I had remembered to bring my bag with me so that I didn’t have to force one of the girls to carry my things for me. As we were about to enter the shop, I spotted that odd dog again. It was standing alone, in the middle of an alley, just staring out into the busy street. It looked around, and when it spotted me, stopped looking around and stared at me, like it knew me and was begging for me to recognize it. For some reason, the dog began to look really familiar, but I couldn’t place how or why.

           I felt myself begin to walk towards the dog, and I noticed its ears perk up. However, before I could get even three steps towards the dog, Katie called after me, pulling me out of my thoughts and reminding me of where I was. I shook my head and looked back over to the alley, hoping to spot the dog again, but it was gone, as though it was never even there in the first place. I shook my head again, and made my way inside the shop.

           After we had all filled our arms, and I had stuffed my bag with sweets for me, and chocolates for Uncle Moony, we left Honeyduke’s and began walking towards The Three Broomsticks for butterbeer and to get out of the cold.

           We walked inside, and I tried to ignore the many people that began to stare at me due to the fact that I still could not control my metamorphmagi abilities. We ended up sitting at a table in the back where I wouldn’t draw any more attention to myself. I had originally thought that the reason for my lack of control over my ability was because I was having a hard time sleeping. This, however, had not changed at all while I was taking the Dreamless Sleep Potion, so I still had no idea what was causing that issue, and I was beginning to wonder if I would ever have control over that again.

           “Merlin, Dora,” Katie said after we had sat down. “I’m starting to get woozy just looking at you.” I completely understood where she was coming from considering the fact that I could feel every time something had changed. “At least you’re consistent.”

           “What do you mean?” I asked.

           “Your eyes and hair are changing to the same color at the same time,” Angelina said. “Have you even looked in a mirror recently?”

           “Why bother?” I sighed. “It’s not like I have control over it anyway. What color are they now?”

           “Bright blue,” Alicia said. Then I felt the change occur. “Now they’re purple.” I shrugged. The only upside to this was that the constant changes did not happen instantaneously; they only occurred every five minutes or so, but were extremely annoying and highly distracting.

           “Purple’s good,” I said. “I like purple.”

           “Maybe when that all gets straightened out, you can keep it that way,” Katie joked.

           “Maybe not to this extreme,” I said with a laugh.

           We talked for a few more minutes, my appearance staying the same for the time being, just waiting for the room to clear out a bit before getting butterbeer. I offered to get them, much to my friends’ protests, and once there was a clearing, got up and headed over to the counter to order.

           I ordered the four butterbeers, and while I was waiting, saw Professors McGonagall and Flitwick walk in with Hagrid not far behind them. Shortly after, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, appeared in the doorway. I would recognize that narcissistic attitude anywhere. I tried to ignore what they were discussing as they sat down at a nearby table, but at the mention of Sirius Black, I kept myself firmly planted in my place. Luckily, I was still waiting for the butterbeers.

           They hadn’t said anything more than what I had already known, including what Black had done to get himself locked up in Azkaban. What really caught my attention, was when Madam Rosmerta asked about what had happened to “the other Black.”

           “Confused the two of them for a while,” she said. “Couldn’t tell the difference between them if you looked, but the other one was better behaved.” McGonagall seemed to stiffen slightly at the mention of the brother, but no one other than me seemed to notice.

           “He was very bright,” she said stiffly.

           “Such a shame what happened to him,” Fudge added, although he didn’t seem to truly care all that much, at least in my opinion.

           “What did happen to him, Minister?” Madam Rosmerta asked.

           “Killed in the war,” he answered. “At least that’s what I heard. Lost a lot of good people in the war.” Everyone at the table agreed and the conversation seemed to die out for a while.

           The four butterbeers that I had ordered appeared soon after on the counter in front of me.  I politely thanked the bartender, who had also provided a tray for me to carry them on, and he nodded quickly before tending to the many other customers in the pub. I picked up the tray, and as I was making my way back to the table where my friends had been waiting, something said at that table stopped me dead in my tracks.

           “Who was it that he hung around with again? Sirius and James were inseparable, but his brother was very close to another student,” Madam Rosmerta said. Everyone at the table seemed to get even quieter after this question was asked. I had to strain my ears just to be able to hear the answer. However, I almost wished I hadn’t heard it at all.

           “Remus Lupin,” McGonagall answered quietly. The look on her face made it seem as though she’d have much rather said anyone else’s name but his. She looked around the pub as well, checking to see if anyone had heard her. Thankfully, she hadn’t seen me, or the fact that I had almost dropped the tray of butterbeers that I had been carefully balancing in my one hand.

           I didn’t stay over there any longer, as I did not want to hear anything more than that conversation. I hurried back to the table and passed everyone a butterbeer, inserting myself back into the conversation. I tried to hide my shock as best as I possibly could, and tried to put all of my attention back into the conversation at hand. However, I knew that once I got back to the castle, I was going to have to talk to Uncle Moony about everything I had just heard, and I knew it wasn’t going to be a good conversation.

           After finishing our butterbeers, we had decided to call it a day, and began making the long journey back up to the castle. The four of us made idle conversation as we walked, but spent the majority of the time trying to keep ourselves warm.

           When we finally made it to the castle, the only thing we all wanted to do was go up to the common room and defrost by the fire. I knew I had to speak to Uncle Moony though, so instead I made up some excuse about my arm hurting, and said I would meet up with them for dinner. Katie had offered to go with me to the hospital wing, but I told her I’d be fine by myself, and we went our separate ways.

           I began to make my way towards his classroom, knowing full well that he’d be locked away in his office since the full moon was approaching, and he never felt well when the full moon was near. I was hoping he’d at least be honest with me this time around, if not, I could always bribe him with the chocolate I bought. Regardless of whether or not he told me the truth, I knew I was still going to give it to him anyway considering I bought the chocolate for him in the first place.

           As expected, Uncle Moony was in his office inside of his classroom. I could see him from the doorway, tiredly sitting at his desk, attempting to grade assignments from his classes. For a moment, I thought about not bothering him, but I was desperate for answers and knew it would be best for me to just go through with it right then, considering I had already gone out of my way to see him in the first place.

           Tentatively, I made my way into his classroom, attempting to be as quiet as I possibly could. He didn’t seem to notice me though, as I crossed the room and began to make my way up the short staircase leading to his office. I stood in the doorway for a moment, nervously debating with myself over whether or not I should go through with this. My curiosity got the better of me though, so I knocked a few times on the doorframe to get his attention.

           He looked up quickly, surprised at the fact that he had a visitor, before giving me a small, tired smile.

           “Hello Dora,” he said. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

           “I didn’t want to bother you,” I said while nervously playing with the fringe on my scarf. “You seemed busy.”

           “That’s alright,” he said. “I’m not too busy. Come in and have a seat.” I made my way inside of his office, still nervously pulling on the end of my scarf, and sat down in the chair in front of his desk. “So, what brings you all the way over here? I’d thought you’d have gone off to Hogsmeade with your friends.”

           “I did,” I said, showing him the bag of things that I’d bought from the shops with a smile. I set the bag down on my lap and started fishing through it, looking for the large box of chocolate frogs I’d bought for him. Once I had found it, I placed it on his desk with a wide smile. “Bought you something, too.” He gave me another weak smile and shook his head slightly. “Figured you’d need something to help you out.” He nodded slightly and thanked me for the chocolate, something that happened after every trip to Hogsmeade.

           “Now,” he said as he placed the box of chocolate frogs on the shelf behind him. “What is it you really came all the way here to talk to me about?” Of course he knew that I was trying to distract him with chocolate considering this wasn’t the first time I had done that. I felt my hair and eyes change for the millionth time that day and briefly wondered what color they were then. “Still having trouble with that?”

           “Well, yeah,” I said. “But that’s not why I’m here.” I got nervous again, wondering if it was really the right time to bring up what I had heard at The Three Broomsticks. I realized, though, that if I didn’t say anything right then, I probably never would.

           “Alright,” he said. “What is it then?” This was where the hard part was. I knew I was now going to have to ask him, but I was worried at the same time. Not only was I worried about asking him, but I was also worried about what his answer would be. At that point in time, I wasn’t sure which worried me more.

           “Did you know Sirius Black when you were a student here?” I asked. I made sure that I phrased it in a way that didn’t make it sound like I was accusing him of anything. I hoped that because of this, he’d actually give me an answer instead of just brushing me off like usually did.

           He sighed, but after a moment looked at me and reluctantly replied, “Yes, I knew him.” Okay, so at least he answered honestly with that question. I, however, wasn’t sure how he was going to like my next question.

           “Did my dad know him?” Uncle Moony seemed a bit more hesitant to answer that question. I wasn’t sure why though, considering he and dad were really good friends. Surely dad would have known him if Uncle Moony did.

           “Yes, he did,” Uncle Moony said with a sigh. I could tell he wasn’t too thrilled with how this conversation was going, but I knew that if I wanted answers, I had to keep asking him those questions, no matter how uncomfortable the whole situation became.

           I was even more worried about asking him the next question, mostly because of how reluctant he had been to answer my previous questions. However, I knew the answer to this question already, but needed to hear it from him. I was just worried about how he’d take it.

           “Did you know his brother, too?” I asked. Uncle Moony’s head shot up and a look of surprise covered his face. He obviously hadn’t expected me to ask that question, although I then became curious as to what he had expected me to ask him instead.

           The look of surprise vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, and I knew this conversation wasn’t going to end well.

           “How do you know about his brother?” he asked.

           “That’s not the point,” I deflected. “Did you know him?” He didn’t seem at all happy about my response, and I knew it probably was not the best way to answer him as well. I could tell from the way he was looking at me that he clearly didn’t want anyone to know.

           “Dora,” he said. “This is very important. Who told you about Sirius Black’s brother?” Of course he had to turn this whole situation around on me.

           “No one,” I replied. He didn’t like that answer either and instead of asking me again, he continued to stare me down until I eventually gave in. “I was at The Three Broomsticks with my friends getting some butterbeer, and Professor McGonagall was there…with Professor Flitwick. And Hagrid was there, too…and so was the Minister of Magic.” He gave me a look as if to say ‘go on,’ so I reluctantly continued. “And Madam Rosmerta asked about him.”

           “So you were eavesdropping,” he said, disappointment clear in his voice.

           “No, I wasn’t,” I said. “I just happened to be there when they were talking.”

           “What else did you hear?” He seemed worried and slightly angry at the same time when he asked me that question. I guessed it was because he really didn’t want anyone knowing about his friendship with him.

           “Nothing,” I lied. “Nothing other than that he died in the war.” Uncle Moony seemed a bit relieved when I said that. I was just glad that he seemed to buy the lie. “Did you know him though?”

           “Look Dora,” he said, once again a bit miffed that I was making him relive some memory that he didn’t seem too fond of. “I did know them, but not very well. We were just classmates. That’s all.”

           “But what-”

           “There’s nothing more to discuss,” he said, cutting me off and effectively ending that conversation. I knew he was lying about all of that, but I couldn’t tell him because if I did, he’d most likely never speak to me outside of class again knowing that I’d never let the subject die. I also knew not to push him too far considering the fact that with the full moon approaching, he was slightly on edge, and one wrong move could cause a whole lot of problems. So, I just nodded my head sadly, before remembering something else; that weird dog.

           “There is something else,” I said. “It’s probably nothing, but I thought I should at least tell someone.”

           “What is it?” he asked, a little reluctant.

           “Well, there’s this dog,” I said. “And I’ve been seeing it around.”

           “A dog?” he asked surprised. “What kind of dog?”

           “A big, black, scruffy one,” I answered slightly confused. “It’s probably nothing; Maybe just my imagination.”

           “You’re probably right,” Uncle Moony quickly agreed. “Anyway, do you have any plans for Christmas break? Your parents told me you were staying in the castle for the holiday.”

           “Yeah, I am,” I answered really confused. He went from being extremely curious and almost worried about that dog, to not even wanting to discuss it, and blowing it off as if it really were all made up in my mind. I knew then that he was definitely hiding something, but I didn’t yet know what it was. “No plans.”

           “I heard there aren’t that many of you staying here this year,” he added.

           “Er, yeah, not really,” I said.

           “Should be nice here.” He said, and the conversation continued on in the exact same way. Clearly, there was something that Uncle Moony didn’t want me to know, and it was killing me that I couldn’t figure it out. I knew that I wasn’t going to get anymore out of my conversation with him than I already had, so I said goodbye to him soon after, and began to make my way towards the Great Hall for dinner.

           After dinner, I went up to my dormitory and set my bag down on my bed, still thinking about everything that had happened that day. I still had no idea what he was hiding from me, and I knew I probably wasn’t going to get any sleep that night. For the first time in a while, I felt like I needed to talk to someone about all of that. However, the one person I knew would understand most of all, (and would probably frustrate the living daylights out of me the entire conversation) still wasn’t speaking with me, which left me with no other option than to just ponder those thoughts alone.


End file.
